Lost in the Darkness
by Usagi-Zakura
Summary: Set after KH2. Sora transforms into a heartless and disapears. Now his friends, Riku, Kairi, Donald, Mickey, Goofy and Roxas set out to find him, and hopefully free his heart. A little SoraKairi and maybe KairiRoxas.
1. Mystery Crate

**Usagi: Hi people! Here comes a fic I've been working on for a couple of weeks, it is older than Kingdom Dorks, and more serious.**

**Sora: great! I hated that random shit**

**Usagi: don't celebrate too soon keyblade master**

**Sora: o.O**

**Usagi: I thought of this story almost immediately after finishing Kingdom Hearts 2 (and no, I haven't played the first game… but I've seen the cut scenes and should be getting the first game in a few days from an online store) It was pretty much started as an excuse to bring Roxas back.**

**Sora: you couldn't have done it in a way that does NOT involve me getting my heart torn out again?**

**Usagi: where's the fun in that?**

**Sora: you're an evil evil little girl.**

**Usagi: (evil laugh) That's right. Evil henchmen/pets bunny! Come say the disclaimer.**

**Zakura: Miss.Ecofreak AKA: the Usagi Zakura does not own Kingdom Hearts or else Kingdom Hearts III could may well end up like this.**

**Sora: thank god!**

**Roxas: that'd be kind of cool really**

**Sora: (knocks Roxas out)**

**Usagi: Read and review.

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**Chapter 1**

**Mystery Crate**

It was a sunny day at Destiny Islands.

Life had been calm ever since Organization XIII was defeated, and so the keyblade master Sora was simply enjoying the sun at the beach, as Kairi arrived.

"Hi Sora. What are you doing?" she asked.

"Nothing much" Sora replied.

Kairi sat down next to him, smiling.

It was hard to believe the boy sitting next to her had already saved the world twice.

Destiny Islands seemed even more peaceful than usual; there was not a cloud on the sky, and hardly any wind.

Nothing could spoil such a perfect day.

That is a saying you must never use, for whenever you do, something does spoil your day, or sometimes your entire life.

"What's that?" Sora said, pointing at the sea.

There was a crate floating in the water, the waves brought it closer to the two, sitting at the beach.

Sora grabbed the crate and pulled it onto the shore.

"What do you think it is?" Kairi asked, as the crate suddenly started moving she jumped.

"There's something in there" Sora said.

"Maybe it's a heartless" a new voice behind them.

"Very funny Riku" Sora said and laughed. "Or perhaps it's the monster of loch ness."

"You won't know until you open it" Riku said.

Sora tried to remove the lid, but it was nailed shut.

The crate started shaking whenever he touched it.

"Uhm, maybe we should leave it. What if it is something dangerous?" Kairi said.

"You're not worried about the heartless are you? I was just kidding" Riku said.

"I know… I just got a bad feeling about this" Kairi said.

"Relax. It's probably just a dog that jumped in at the wrong place or something. You know, it would be pretty cool to have a dog wouldn't it?" Sora asked.

The Kingdom Key materialized in his hand, and he stuck it into the crate to try to break it up.

Suddenly the crate started jumping around; it bounced all the way back to the water, as if it was horribly scared of Sora's keyblade.

The three friends just looked at it for a while.

The crate had stopped moving so Riku came closer to have a look, he put his ear to the box.

"Can you hear anything?" Kairi asked.

"Not while you're talking" Riku replied and Kairi silenced.

After a short while Riku got up again. "Nothing. Whatever's in there must have died. Perhaps from the stress of being out in the ocean for a long time" he said.

Suddenly the lid fell of, and a black creature with big yellow eyes flew out of the box.

"Man, I hate having right" Riku said and pulled out his keyblade.

The heartless fell to the ground and looked around, as if unsure of who to attack first.

It soon decided though to not take any chances, and darted of towards a cave.

Sora was about to run after it, but Riku stopped him.

"Hold on Sora what if there are more of them?" He asked. "How many times have we encountered just one small heartless anyway?"

"You've got a point there but we've still got to catch this one before it runs of. I don't like the thought of one of those creatures running loose on the island" Sora said. "What it if attacks someone?"

Kairi looked out on the ocean.

"Don't see any other crates" She said. "But how about Riku and I stay here and watch, while you go take out the one in the cave Sora?"

"Got it" Sora said, and ran towards the cave.

As he ran of, Kairi looked back at the ocean, yet all she could see were tiny waves and occasionally some fish jumping.

"Where did it come from?"

Kairi looked around at her friend; Riku was examining the box the heartless came in.

"Maleficent should be dead by now, and Organization XIII are all wiped out too. So where did this fellow come from? And why did he end up here?" Riku said.

"Do you think there's a coincidence?" Kairi asked, but Riku shook his head.

"One heartless, caught in a crate that's been nailed shut just happened to drift ashore here? It's almost as if it was looking for…"

"Sora!" Kairi said suddenly and ran towards the cave.

She didn't quite know why but she suddenly felt that her friend needed her more than ever, usually she would have been confident that Sora could take out a single heartless, after all he had fought thousands in the past, so why did she suddenly feel this could be his last battle?

"Sora!" she yelled, as soon as she got to the cave's entrance.

For a few unbearable seconds she saw nothing, but then finally the boy appeared in the cave entrance.

"You're okay" Kairi said and let out a sigh of relief, but then Sora collapsed by the cave entrance.

"Sora!" Kairi started running towards him.

"No Kairi. Stay back" Sora said. As he turned his head to look back, Kairi noticed he was bleeding out of his chest.

There was movement in the darkness of the cave, and soon Sora and Kairi could see the heartless running out, its claws covered in blood, however it still hadn't gotten what it came for. Sora's heart.

The heartless jumped into the air to attack the seemingly helpless teenager. However, Sora didn't become a hero for nothing.

He span around holding the keyblade with both hands, as a shield between him and the heartless, as it landed on the blade it stretched out its arms towards Sora's wound.

For a brief moment it looked as if Sora was winning, but Kairi could see the loss of blood was weakening him.

She couldn't believe this was happening, this couldn't be just a normal heartless, or Sora would have no problems beating it. She wanted to help, but if Sora couldn't defeat the monster, how could she?

She wanted to get Riku, but he was back at the beach, there was no way he could get here in time.

The heartless suddenly grabbed Sora's arm and used it to pull itself closer to his chest.

"No Sora, you can't let it get you!" Kairi screamed.

Sora looked at her, a sad look on his face, but he tried to smile.

"I'm sorry" he said, as he lost his grip on the keyblade with one hand.

"NOOO!" Kairi screamed and ran towards him, however she was stopped as someone grabbed her hand and pulled her away. She hadn't even noticed Riku had arrived, but now she was struggling to get free from his grip, and run over to help Sora, although deep inside she knew it was too late, that she could risk meeting the same fate, but she didn't care.

As Sora's hand fell to the ground, the keyblade fell onto his attacker, killing the heartless instantly.

At this point Kairi didn't want to see more, she hid her face behind Riku, but in her mind she could still see the scene from two years ago, as Sora sacrificed his heart to save her and the other princesses.

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**Usagi: to be continued.**

**Sora: You're insane!**

**Usagi: Can't remember having asked for your opinion did I? I should probably say sorry to all the Sora-fans who would probably get upset by this, and no, he's not coming back until the end of the fic.**

**Sora: how about saying sorry to me???**

**Usagi: Because you're not real!**

**Sora: oh…**

**Usagi: Sorry the first chapter is a little rushed... It'll get better. Next chapter will mark the return of some other old friends, but I won't upload that until I get a few reviews on this one so REVIEW! **

**Sora: NO DON'T!**

**Usagi: why? You want to be a heartless forever?**

**Sora: Damn… didn't think about that… REVIEW PLEASE!**


	2. The Other

**Usagi: You bet I was surprised when I checked my inbox yesterday, only a couple of hours after submitting this and I had 6 messages in my inbox**

**Zakura: yet only two of those were reviews for this fic… the others were for Kingdom Dorks. Maybe you are better at parodies.**

**Usagi: 2 or a million. Doesn't matter, I have fans! And they demand updates! So here's an update for you!

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**Chapter 2**

**The Other**

"Gawrsh, why do you think the king wanted to see us?"

"I don't know Goofy, but it sure sounded like something serious".

Donald and Goofy were walking through the halls of Disney Castle.

They were on their way to the throne room, after receiving an urgent message from King Mickey, and when you receive an urgent call from someone who's in the same house as you, it's definitely very urgent.

At least this time the mouse hadn't just left a note and left the castle without telling anyone where he went.

As the two friends entered the throne room he was walking back and fourth in front of his throne, looking awfully worried.

"Ah, finally. There you are" he said as he saw the two enter.

"We came as fast as we could your majesty" Donald said and bowed.

"Is something wrong your majesty?" Goofy asked.

"Actually I don't know. But I just got a horrible feeling something is not right" Mickey said. "I already ordered Chip and Dale to get the gummi ship ready."

"Where are we going?" Donald asked.

"We're going to the Destiny Islands" Mickey said, before hurrying out of the throne room.

Donald and Goofy didn't waste any time running after him. They knew all to well what Destiny Island was, and if Sora was in trouble, there was no way they were going to leave him to his own fate.

When Kairi opened her eyes she found herself back in her own room.

Riku must have carried her to her house after yesterday's happenings

Where was Riku anyway?

She went outside and heard soon talking from the beach, Riku was talking to someone.

She could see a colourful space-ship down at the beach; next to it was Riku along with their old friends Mickey, Donald and Goofy.

They stopped talking as they saw Kairi advancing, and Mickey ran up to her.

"Kairi! Riku just told me the news. Is there anything we can do?" he asked.

"Um… No, there's nothing. Thanks anyway Mickey" Kairi said.

"Okay. Just remember we're here if you need anything" Mickey said and smiled.

Sure he was king of Disney Castle, yet he rarely acted like one, to Kairi, Riku and Sora, he simply acted as a good friend.

Donald and Goofy broke into tears, Riku however stayed completely calm.  
"You guys are making it seem as if he's died or anything" he said. "Sora's heartless ran of, and disappeared into some kind of portal. I'd say we take the gummi ship and go find him".

"How? We don't even know where that portal lead to!" Donald asked.

"Where did this happen?" Mickey asked.

Riku and Kairi led their friends towards the cave. The Kingdom Keyblade was still stuck in the ground right outside the entrance.

Donald looked nervously inside the cave.

"You're sure there aren't any other heartless in there?" he asked.

"Yes. There was only one and it died when hit by this" Riku said as he pulled the keyblade out of the ground.

"Well there's definitely something in there" Mickey said. "I can hear it."

"Gawrsh. Think it's something dangerous?" Goofy asked.

"Nah. Probably just an animal of some sort. Or could it be… I'll go check it out" Mickey said and walked into the cave.

The mouse walked into the cave, yet he didn't get far before he found what he was looking for.

"Riku? Could you come give me a hand here?" he yelled out.

Riku went inside to help out, as Donald, Goofy and Kairi gathered around the entrance to see what Mickey had found.

Soon the two emerged, supporting a young boy, who seemed to be having trouble walking.

At first glance, he looked a lot like Sora, however his hair was brighter coloured, not to mention shorter.

"Roxas!" Kairi gasped.

"Who's that?" Goofy asked.

"Nobody" Roxas replied shortly, and flinched in pain as he tried to put some weight to his right leg.

"Careful, you might hurt yourself" Mickey said.

"It's okay. I'm fine" Roxas said as Riku helped him sit down on a rock.

Mickey checked his foot over. "It looks like it might be broken" he said. "Donald, can you help?"

"No problem" Donald said and pulled out his staff. A flash of green light came out of it, and soon Roxas' foot was perfectly fine.

"What happened in there?" Riku asked.

"I'm not quite sure" Roxas said. "I remember chasing…or Sora chasing the heartless into the cave. It was very dark, so the heartless was hard to spot. In fact it was impossible. But I remember seeing some movement into the dark, a sharp pain in the chest, then nothing."

"Where is Sora?" Kairi asked.

"I don't know" the nobody replied. "Sorry."  
"Well as I was saying before this guy showed up, why don't we just go find him?" Riku asked.

"And as I was saying before, how?" Donald asked.

"Well don't ask me" Riku said. "All I know is that I'm not just going to sit here and sulk. Sora is my best friend; he spent ages trying to find me although he had no clue where to look either. So whether you guys like it or not I'm going alone if I have to".

"You can't. Even if you do find Sora's heartless, how are you going to save his heart?" Mickey asked.

"He got it back once before didn't he?" Riku said.

"That was then Riku, I don't think it will work again" Kairi said.

"If it counts for anything" Roxas started. "Last time Sora became a heartless I didn't get any of his memories, yet I do now".

Riku looked about ready to kill the nobody then and there, yet he knew he couldn't blame Roxas for being honest, besides there was a slight chance Roxas would easily beat him if he picked a fight.

Instead he turned to glaring at each one of his friends in turn (including Roxas).

"So that's it then, you're giving up?" he asked.

"It's not like that, but there isn't much hope is it?" Kairi asked.

"True there's not much, but that doesn't mean all hope is lost does it? I'm leaving alone if I have to. So if you want to stick around here sulking that's fine with me" Riku said.

"Now wait just a minute!" Donald yelled. "There is NO way you're going of to save Sora all on your own!"

Riku looked at the duck with a confused look.

"I think what Donald tries to tell yah is that we're coming too" Goofy said, and Donald nodded.

"Good. Cause I can't drive the gummi ship anyway" Riku said.

Donald and Goofy sweat dropped.

"If you're leaving then I'm going with you. I don't want to be left behind again" Kairi said.

"It could become dangerous" Riku warned.

"So?" Kairi asked.

"You can't really argue with that" Roxas said.

"I take it you're coming too?" Riku asked the blonde.

"Thousand angry heartless couldn't keep me away" Roxas said. "Not that heartless would want anything from me seeing I don't have a heart… but you know what I mean."

Mickey sighed.

"Sounds like I'm outnumbered" he said. "Very well then, let's go save Sora!"

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**Usagi: and we're of! **

**Roxas: Wooot!**

**Sora: you stole my life you blasted nobody!**

**Roxas: well I can't help Usagi likes me better**

**Sora: (glares)**

**Usagi: next chapter isn't finished yet, but I'll be sure to finish it sooner or later. In the meanwhile I like getting reviews:) so review! and give Sora some chocolate so he won't feel so down**

**Sora: how's chocolate supposed to make me feel better you damn ro...**

**Roxas: sea salt ice cream (offers icecream to his somebody)**

**Sora: oh (grabs Ice cream)**

**Roxas: I know what he likes.**

**Usagi: okay. Now everyone's happy. Please review.**


	3. New Plans

**Usagi: and we're back once again. Thanks everyone for the positive reviews. **

**Now in this chapter our heroes will be getting to a whole new world, never before seen in any Kingdom Hearts Game. It also has nothing to do with either Disney or Final Fantasy, but rather a different PS2-game called Jak and Daxter.**

**If you're not familiar with the games that's not so important (Heck I didn't know most of the final fantasy characters in Kingdom Hearts either... only Yuna, Paine and Rikku, and I knew Sephiroth and Cloud by reputation but that's it). If you are familiar with it, it will take place a couple of years after Jak3, the dark makers are all gone and metalheads nearly extinct. **

**I will also be introducing some of my own characters in the following chapters. First of is Cornelius, who seems to sneak into every single fic I write. Kingdom Dorks 2 and Demon Prince are currently the only fics he's not appearing in (and probably never will)**

**Cornelius is a Jak and Daxter-OC. So that also makes him an elf, with abnormally large ears. He's an adventurer, and former member of the Haven City Underground Movement just like Jak. During my previous fic, Light Within, he's become friends with Jak and Daxter.  
Cornelius is hardly ever seen without Tanya the sparrowflut. She's a small bird he rescued as a chick.  
Cornelius is also baron Praxis' nephew, and younger brother of Errol, his past treachery caused him to be thrown out into the desert to die, but since the baron is now gone he's been allowed back in, yet he still visits the wasteland regularly with Jak and Daxter. **

**Other new characters appearing in this chapter are Spike and Spot, two flut-flut birds (first seen in the first Jak and Daxter-game, blue and yellow birds big enough for a person to ride) Spot is a docile bird given to Cornelius as a birthday present from his uncle (not Praxis, another uncle). Spike is far less docile after being used for horrific experiments with dark eco. Now he snaps at everyone who comes close, except for Jak, who's been through the same rough treatment by baron Praxis.**

**More introductions to other new characters after the chapter. Enjoy!

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**SPOILER WARNING: Jak2 Renegade and Jak3

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**Chapter 3**

**New Plans**

"So, where are we of to next?" Chip the chipmunk asked.

"I'd say we should go talk to Yen Sid first. If anyone knows what to do, it's him" Mickey said.

"Alrighty then! Next stop; Yen Sid's tower!" Chip's brother Dale said.

Donald sat down in front of the steering wheel, Riku stood behind him.

"Will this take long?" he asked.

"A few hours maybe. I suggest you sit down" Donald said.  
"Nah. I can stand" Riku said.

Donald turned on the engine, and the gummi ship took of with a rush, Riku fell over.

"I told you to sit down" Donald said.

Riku growled at the duck, and got up.

As the ship exited the atmosphere it slowed down, and Riku could finally stand upright without having to fall.

One other person had ignored Donald's warning as well, that was Roxas, he was holding on to the edge of one of the windows, and only just managed to stand upright.

Now he was just staring down at Destiny Islands, which were slowly disappearing out of view.

Kairi walked up next to him.

"Wow. It looks so small from up here" she said.

"It's always been small Kairi" Riku said as he sat down into one of the chairs.

"Maybe. But its still home" Kairi said.

"Yeah, whatever" Riku said.

"What do you think Roxas?" Kairi asked.

The nobody turned his head to look at her, as he didn't expect her to talk to him.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"What do you think about the island? What little you've seen of it anyway" Kairi asked.

Roxas looked back at the islands, which were now only visible as a tiny spot in the ocean.

"It's okay I guess" he said.

He went back to gazing out of the window, yet Kairi still wanted to get a conversation going, to pass time.

"So… how was it like back where you came from? Before I mean?" Kairi asked.

"You don't want to know" Roxas said.

"It can't have been that bad" Kairi said. "You had a friend back there didn't you? A guy with red hair… what was his name again?"

"Axel" Roxas replied. "And it doesn't matter. He's long gone anyway".

"Do you miss him?"

"Got to have a heart for that."

"I met him once" Kairi said. "And it sure looked as if he was missing you".

"Did he really?" Roxas said with little interest.

Not once had he turned to look at Kairi, just continued to stare blankly out of the window.

"I think that's about the deepest you'll ever get out of him Kairi" Riku said. "Just leave him alone".

Kairi sighed and sat down into the chair next to Riku.

Then suddenly the ship started shaking, Kairi almost fell out of her chair, but Riku grabbed her so she didn't hit the wall, Roxas tripped.

"Donald! What's going on?" Riku asked.

"I don't know!" the duck quacked. "I think we were hit by something, perhaps a meteorite."

Chip and Dale jumped up at the dashboard.

"We can't fix it from the inside, we have to land" Chip said.

"There is one world close by" Mickey said and pointed to the map. "Right there."

"Hang on everyone, this is going to be a bumpy ride" Donald said.

Roxas managed to make his way into one of the seats as well, and fastened his seatbelts, as did Kairi.

Donald steered the ship towards the unknown world, the area they were moving towards appeared to be nothing but one big waste desert, though with something that appeared to be a city, hidden behind walls.

As on cue, a massive sandstorm started blowing as the gummi ship got closer to the ground, making it shake even more.

"Donald! Look out for that mountain" Goofy yelled.

"I'm trying you idiot!" Donald snapped back, hanging on to the steering wheel for his bare life.

Soon no one could see anything but sand through the windows.

A soft thud told our heroes they had hit the sandy ground, the gummi ship kept bouncing because of the speed it held before crashing but finally stopped.

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Someone had seen the gummi ship crash.

Two men sitting atop of two very large birds were watching from a short distance away.

One had blond and greenish hair; both were wearing goggles to protect his eyes from the sand. The bird he was sitting on was mainly blue and yellow, with patches of blue and green on his yellow striped back.

The other had brown black-striped hair; his bird looked a lot calmer than the aggressive bird of his friend. It too was blue, with a yellow stomach as well as yellow back. The tail had spots of yellow on the tip.

Another interesting feature regarding these two were their ears, they were sharp, and probably 20 cm long.

"What is that?" a voice said.

It didn't come from any of the men, but from a small orange weasel, sitting behind the blonde.

"Looks like some kind of space ship" the brown-haired elf said.

"Dark makers?" asked a blue and yellow bird on his head.

"I don't think so. It looks too colourful" said the blonde.

"Care to go check it out?" the brunette smirked.

"You find excitement in the weirdest things Cornelius" the blonde added.

"Anything might lead to an adventure Jak, you should know that" Cornelius said, and patted the bird he was riding. "What do you say Spot? Shall we go greet our new guests?"

The bird, Spot, gave out a cry of joy, and bounced of the sandy cliffs they were standing on.

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The sand dunes provided a soft landing for our heroes, and luckily the sand storms also passed by very quickly, so they could get a clear view of their surroundings.

Chip, Dale and Donald were already assessing the damage to the gummi ship's wings, and Riku had climbed up on top of the space ship, to get a better view of the desert.

"Can you see anything?" Kairi shouted up to him.

"It looks like there's a city over there" Riku said. "But it won't be easy getting there; it looks like it's locked up."

Roxas decided to climb up as well, only to look in the opposite direction.

"There's nothing there; I already checked" Riku said.

"Yeah, but someone's coming" Roxas added.

Riku turned around to see where the nobody was looking, he saw two men coming towards them, riding some large birds.

"Enemies?" Donald asked.

"I'm not sure" Riku said, but he pulled his keyblade just in case.

Roxas too summoned the Oathkeeper.

The newcomers however didn't draw weapons, but stopped a few feet away from the group.

"Ahoy there people. No need to point that at us, we just want to talk" Cornelius said with a smile.

"Sorry. During our travels we've learned to be careful" Riku said and his keyblade disappeared. Roxas still kept his out though, yet he lowered it slightly.

"I'm Kairi" Kairi said. "And these are my friends, Donald, Chip and Dale, Goofy, Mickey, and those two on the rooftop are Riku and Roxas."

"Nice to meet you. My name's Cornelius, this is Spot" Cornelius said patting the bird he was riding. "And this here's my pet sparrow Tanya, and this is Jak, the little ottsel is Daxter and the bird's name is Spike".

"Wazzup!" Daxter said enthusiastic.

"Wow. That's some adorable birds. What are they?" Kairi asked.

"They're flut-fluts" Cornelius said. "You may pet Spot if you like, but stay clear of Spike, he's a little mean."

Kairi petted the large bird on his head, and he seemed to enjoy the attention, and pecked her lightly in the face.

"He likes you" Cornelius said. "But your space-ship looks kind of busted. Do you guys need help fixing it?"

"No problem! We can handle it" Chip said as he tried to put a screw back into its place, it popped right back out. "But we might need some spare parts".

"No problem little guy. Jak's girlfriend's a mechanic back in Haven City; she can fix all sorts of things."

"Is Haven that city over there?" Riku asked.

"No. That's Spargus" Jak said, speaking up for the first time. "Haven is far away, but we can arrange a transport for you and your spaceship. I'm sure you're welcome to rest in Spargus in the meanwhile though".

"Thanks. That would be nice" Mickey said.

Jak and Cornelius led the gang towards the unwelcoming city walls, as they approached, a huge door opened, revealing a garage filled with various cars, with abnormally large wheels, obviously made for driving in the desert.

Jak tied Spike up to one of the cars, yet Cornelius just opened a door into the city itself, and set Spot loose.

"Aren't you scared he's going to run away?" Riku asked.

"Nah. He always comes when he's called. Spike's being tied up for security reasons though; he's had a rough life. Now Jak is the only one who's allowed anywhere near him" Cornelius explained. "Now boys, and girl" he added to Kairi. "Welcome to Spargus City."

The city didn't really look much more welcoming than the desert or the walls on the outside, and almost everyone walking in the streets were carrying guns of varying sizes.

Even the women looked prepared for war, and no children were in sight.

"This sure looks like a lively place" Riku said.

"Don't mind that. Spargus was originally a refuge for the outcasts of Haven City. We've had to learn how to survive out in the deserts and protect ourselves from marauders and metalheads every day, as well as the hardships of desert storms" Cornelius explained. "Now the metalheads are a lot fewer though, also Haven City's evil tyrant passed away a few years ago, so the borders between the two cities have been opened."

"Gosh. Have you guys been at war or something?" Goofy asked.

"Yup. And it's been going on for quite while" Cornelius said. "First it was the metalheads that came to our worlds before any of us were even born, and then later, when I was only four, Baron Praxis took over leadership in Haven City. But he was no good leader. In fact we discovered he was in fact cooperating with the metalheads, bribing them with eco to prevent them from attacking important parts of the city."

"So? If he kept them from attacking wouldn't that be a good thing?" Kairi asked.

"Not as good as it sounds. He took from the eco that was used to supply Haven City with power, open vents attracted more metalheads, and the city's shield got weaker" Cornelius said.

"As to make matters worse this fatass named Krew worked with the metalheads and purposely let them into the city! Only for the sake of the money!" Daxter said. "If it weren't for me and Jak here I'm sure the city would be a pile of dust by now."

"So Jak and Daxter here managed to slay their leader, after he had been kind enough to dispose of our "dear" baron" Cornelius said. "But then Jak was unfairly thrown out into this place, and that's when the dark makers started appearing. Those creepy creatures that made the metalheads. But we saw them of".

"Sounds like you've had a lot on your hands then" Riku said.

"You bet. I've fought stuff that would make you wet your pants for sure" Cornelius said.

"Oh. I wouldn't be too sure of that, we've seen some pretty nasty stuff on our journeys as well" Riku said.

"Cornelius!"

The little sparrow Tanya came flying, dropping a small device into Cornelius' hands.  
"Thought you needed this" she said, landing on Cornelius' goggles.

"Thanks Tanny" Cornelius said. "It's a communicator" he added to the gang, before pressing a few buttons on the small device.

The face of a woman with blue markings on her face appeared on the small screen.

"What is it now Cornelius? Don't tell me you got into trouble again?" she asked.

"Geez Ashelin. Is that a way to greet your favourite cousin?" Cornelius asked. "As a matter of fact we met some new friends in the desert that need some help. Their space ship crashed and so they need some new parts for it, do you know if Keira has some extra time on her hands?"

"I could ask her, but first we need to get the ship to Haven City. Is it big?" Ashelin said.

"Nah… I think we might need a couple of air trains to lift it, and to carry the passengers. Its (he counted the gang) 6 of them+two small rodents and of course Jak and I, and could you get a transport for the fluts as well?" Cornelius said.

"Fine. But you owe me for this" Ashelin said. "I'm getting sick of acting as a taxi service for you and those blasted birds".

"Thanks Ash" Cornelius said and the screen turned blank. "They should be here in a few minutes."

**Usagi: Okay. A lot new chapters introduced now. I'm going to take a recap just to remind you who they are, and to help those who are not familiar with the Jak-series:**

**Jak: Hero of the Jak-series. At the start of Jak2 he was exposed to horrible experiments with a dark substance called Dark Eco. That makes him somewhat grumpy at times, and you won't like him when he's mad. He doesn't speak much; in his first game in fact he never spoke at all, but learned to talk after the experiments. He's also the heir to Haven City's throne, yet he never claimed the title.**

**Daxter: Jak's best friend. He was previously an elf but after falling into a hole of dark eco he transformed into an ottsel (otter-weasel-cross). Now Daxter spends his time riding Jak's shoulder. He talks a lot, loves ladies and hates metalheads. He may sometimes appear scared of anything, but he still follows Jak whenever he goes (which is usually somewhere dangerous).**

**Ashelin: Daughter of the late baron Praxis and current governor of Haven City. A very strict woman yet with a soft spot for Jak. She doesn't like Daxter much though, there are few who does.**

**Baron Praxis (dead, but I'll tell about him anyway): the late ruler of Haven City. Somewhat of a tyrant, and cause for much suffering in Jak's life. Jak wanted him dead, his own nephew Cornelius wanted him dead, half of the city wanted him dead. He met his end at the hands of the metalhead leader, who was later killed by Jak.**

**Usagi: I had a good reason for sending these guys of to this world, you'll find out soon enough (not sure when, but some day!) In the meanwhile, please review and you'll make one heartless very happy.**

**Sora: NOT!**


	4. Haven City

**Sora the shadow: (Still eating ice cream)**

**Roxas: ehm… Usagi?**

**Usagi: (Busy with playstation…Kingdom Hearts of course) what is it now?**

**Roxas: well… I was just wondering, there are lots of different heartless types in the world, each stronger than the other… so how come mine, who also happens to be a keyblade master and saved countless worlds and such, is just a small shadow… weakest of all the heartless?**

**Usagi: I don't know Roxas. It comes from the original Kingdom Hearts Game, I didn't make up heartless Sora out of nowhere you know, otherwise you wouldn't exist either.**

**Roxas: he still looks pathetic…**

**Sora: shut up will yah?**

**Usagi: oh well. On with another chapter. There's not a lot action in this chapter, sorry, but it was necessary to get them going. Also I will be introducing some new characters again, such as Jak's sister Kate, who is my creation. But saving character introductions till later, enjoy the new chapter**

**Roxas: (pokes Sora with a stick) **

**Usagi: Roxas… stop bothering the heartless…**

**Chapter 4**

**Haven City**

"Now this is more like it" Donald said happily, as they strolled down the streets of Haven City.

They had been picked up by a flying vehicle just a few hours earlier; the gummi ship had been tied to it and a second "Air train", as Cornelius called them, and transported to Haven City.

This city looked certainly a lot more welcoming than Spargus, few of the inhabitants wore guns, only some dressed in blue armour, that Riku guessed were some kind of police force, and the buildings were a lot bigger and far more colourful.

"It's nice enough now. But a few years back this place was just as much of a dump as Spargus, if not worse" Cornelius said.

He was showing our heroes around while waiting for the mechanic to arrive. The gummi ship had been parked inside the headquarter of the "Freedom League Guard", which apparently were those guys in blue.

They had also encountered the Governor Ashelin, who was also Cornelius' cousin, and head of the Freedom League, a grumpy elf named Torn, who reminded them somewhat of Leon.

"So where is this mechanic who wanted to help us with our ship?" Kairi asked.

"Jak went out to get her, she should be arriving short… oh, here they are now" Cornelius said as something resembling a flying car appeared.

Cornelius' friend Jak was the one driving, a girl with blue and green hair sat next to him.

The car stopped right next to the group, and the girl jumped out.

"Hi. My name is Keira, I heard you needed some help with a space craft" she said.

"That's right. It just suddenly stopped working as we flew over your world" Kairi said, but then Donald kicked her lightly in the leg.

"We're not supposed to talk about the other worlds" he warned her.

"Never mind that. You came in a space ship so it is pretty obvious you're not from this world" Keira said and laughed.

"Are you sure you can fix it?" Goofy asked.

"There's not a thing invented that Keira can't fix" Daxter said. "She even built a time machine once, based on a machine she had only seen once two years earlier."

"Oh well... that was nothing" Keira said and blushed. "It was pretty much the same machine anyway that was sent back in time… but never mind that. Where's the ship?"

They led Keira into the hangar where the gummi ship was parked, and she immediately began examining the broken wing.

"It looks like it could have been hit by a meteorite or something. Something hard at least" she said.

"Well yeah, we know something hit it but can you fix it?" Riku asked.

"I don't know… it isn't made from any material I'm familiar with, but at least most of the pieces are still here" Keira said as she continued to examine the wing. "Uh-oh"

"What now?" Kairi asked.

"It appears one of the pieces are missing. Do you happen to have any spare parts?" Keira asked.

Mickey glanced at the chipmunks, who glanced at each other.

"You were supposed to bring them!" Chip said accusingly.

"But I thought you brought them!" Dale said.

"Oh just perfect. Don't you have anything that could replace it?" Riku asked.

"Nope. Not unless I rebuilt the whole wing too fit with our parts, and that could take months" Keira said. "But it looks like it may have fallen out after you crashed, so it could be somewhere around the crash site".

"In the desert" Roxas added, he didn't look like he had been paying much attention to the conversation, but apparently he had. "That won't be easy to find".

"Thank you mister obvious. Now what?" Riku asked.

"Well… we just have to find it" Mickey said. "Otherwise we're never going to get anywhere."

"Find it? It could be buried under tons of sand now for all we know?" Donald said.

"Well do you have any better suggestions?" Mickey asked.

Donald silenced. Apparently he hadn't.

"Well then it appears its back to the desert again" Cornelius said with a smirk, he was clearly enjoying this.

"Well you're not borrowing the air trains again" a voice said.

Cornelius turned around to see his cousin.

"Oh, come on Ash. Just this once" Cornelius said.

"No Cornelius, other people than you needs these trains and we've got to pick up some important guests at Kras City as soon as possible" Ashelin said.

"You need both?" Cornelius asked.

"Yes. It is a very large group. Your friends will just have to wait, unless you want to ride the flut-fluts all the way" Ashelin said and walked into one of the air trains with Torn.

"So… what now?" Roxas asked.

"Well you heard her; we'll take the flut-fluts!" Cornelius said.

"What?" the gang said in unison.

"You mean those giant birds? No way!" Donald said.

"No one's forcing you to go. But it may be some time before Ashelin returns from Kras" Cornelius said. "And don't worry, my uncle runs a flut-flut farm not far from here, most of his birds are very docile and will just follow their leader."

"It sounds kind of fun. Doesn't it Roxas?" Kairi said.

"Whatever" Roxas said and stared into the roof.

"Oh, you'll love it for sure. The flut-fluts are the awesome! Really fast strong birds" Cornelius said.

"Well, either way we'll be stuck here for some time. So it can't hurt to try" Mickey said.

Kairi was literally jumping with joy as Riku and Roxas just sent her odd looks.

* * *

The flut-flut-farm was outside the city walls, Cornelius told about the times before, when citizens weren't allowed to leave the city because of the metalheads, but now a day they stayed way clear of the city borders. ("Because of Jak" Daxter added.)

Most of the area around Haven City looked like it had been through war… which it pretty much had, but the farm was completely different.

It consisted of large grass fields, where many colourful flut-fluts were running around, playing or grazing.

Most of the birds were blue, but occasionally Kairi saw a green or yellow bird, and some were all white.

In the middle of the fields were a couple of houses. One was obviously the home of Cornelius' uncle, the other appeared to be the flut-flut stable.

There was a blonde haired girl next to the fence, who was busy feeding the birds as the big group entered the property.

"Hiya Kate! We're back" Cornelius said as they entered.

Kate quickly turned around from the food dish, revealing a few strains of bright green hair in front of her face, similar to Jak.

"Oh, who's this?" She asked.

"These are some new friends we picked up in the desert. Their ship broke down and now we need to go find a missing piece" Cornelius explained. "Ashelin and _Tornyboy_ took the air trains".

Kate rolled her eyes at the mention of Torn's nickname; it had become clear to Kairi and the others when they arrived at Haven City, that Cornelius was NOT very fond of the commander.

"Well it's nice to meet you. My name is Kate. I suppose you've already met by little brother?" Kate said, as said brother, Jak, went up to Spike who was tied up in a pen all by himself.

"We've met him. My name is Mickey Mouse, and these are Donald Duck, Goofy, Riku, Kairi and Roxas" Mickey said. (Chip and Dale stayed with Keira and the gummi ship in case you wondered).

"Well, if you're going out into the desert I guess you need some flut-fluts, is that so? Have any of you ridden a flut before?" Kate asked.

"Nope. Never even seen one" Riku said.

"That's no problem. Most of Charles' birds (that's the owner) are trained to carry newbies, I'll go see if I can find some" Kate said and walked into the pen, on the way she stopped by Mickey.

"Say Mickey, how much do you weigh?" she asked.

"Why do you ask?" Mickey asked.

"Never mind, I'm sure you'll fit" Kate said and called on a little bright blue bird, much smaller than the rest. She picked up Mickey and placed him on the bird's back.

"Okay Tiny Blue?" She asked.

The bird twittered happily, apparently he had no problems carrying the mouse.

"Tiny Blue is rarely ridded sine he's so small" Kate explained. "He's really one of our oldest birds, but he's always been dwarfed by the other birds. So he can only be ridden by children and mice" she added with a smile. "Is that okay with you?"

"He looks fine, thank you" Mickey said as he petted the small flut.

"Great! Then all we need to do is find birds for the rest of you, Cornelius, will you be taking Spot?" Kate asked.

"Of course. Unless he's too tired from the last trip that is" Cornelius said.

Kate whistled, and Spot came running in from the fields, along with another, somewhat bigger flut-flut.

"He looks fine to me" Kate said, as she went back to picking out birds for the rest of the crew.

After a short while she had picked out the friendliest birds. **(A/N: I'll just be making up the next birds as I go)**

Donald was assigned to a blue-yellow bird called Mitch, Goofy was assigned to an unusually large female bird named Mira, Riku was given a bright blue bird called Tori (Japanese for bird), Kairi got an albino red-eyed white bird called Fiona and Roxas was assigned to Blossom, apparently Spike's far kinder daughter.

After helping our heroes saddle the birds, Jak, Kate and Cornelius readied their own.

Kate had brought out the pack-leader, the bird that came along with Spot, Phoenix.

"All set to go?" Kate asked.

* * *

**Sora: (eating stick) **

**Usagi: As promised, here's a recap of the new characters appearing in this chapter:**

**Torn: Commander of the Freedom League Guard. Usually strict and rather grumpy, yet he has a very soft spot for Ashelin.**

**Keira: Jak's girlfriend who works as a mechanic. She (for using Daxter's words) can fix anything.**

**Kate: My character. Jak's older sister loves flut-fluts over anything. **

**Phoenix: a wild caught flut-flut who is now leader of the flut-flut herd at the farm. Good friends with Spot. He used to belong to Cornelius' brother Erol, who is now dead. Now Kate is counted as his owner.**

**Charles: hardly mentioned… but he's Cornelius' uncle. He owns the farm and most of the birds living there.**

**Usagi: the other flut-fluts aren't important since (except for Blossom) I just made them up while writing this chapter. Blossom has only made a short appearance in Light Within, so she has no real history to speak of.**

**Roxas: Sora ate my stick...**

**Usagi: told you to stop bothering him (gives Sora another ice cream and then gives Roxas one too) Well then… please review. **


	5. FlutFlutRacing

**Usagi: We're back!**

**Sora: oh joy. **

**Usagi: was that sarcasm just now?**

**Sora: you turned me into a half metre tall black thingy with hardly any personality or heart! Of course that was sarcasm you crazy insane rabbit-girl!**

**Usagi: no need to be so mad… but I always wondered… do heartless have feelings?**

**Zakura: is that what's on your mind? **

**Usagi: well… do they? The whole thing about heartless and nobodies are somewhat confusing really… but all the same, here comes a new chapter of Lost in Darkness:

* * *

**

**Chapter 5**

**Flut-flut-racing**

Riding the flut-fluts really was fun.

Sure enough Tori didn't seem to be as fast as Phoenix and Spot, but for Riku it didn't matter.

"You think we can fit one of these in the gummi ship when we go home?" Riku asked.

"No way! We're not allowed to take creatures from other worlds and move them to new ones" Donald said, as he ran up right to Riku. "Besides the ship can hardly hold the six of us".

"Spoilsport" Riku muttered. He looked to his left side and saw Roxas, who still looked like he was lost in his own little world. Riku had to remind himself that nobodies such as Roxas, as well as lacking hearts, had no feelings, that may have been why he never seemed to take interest in their conversations. Maybe it was time he got his mind on something else? (Whatever it was he was thinking of in the first place)

"Hey Roxas! Want a race?" Riku asked.

"Huh?" Roxas said confused.

"You heard me. Let's see what these birds can do" Riku said.

"No" Roxas replied.

Riku nearly fell of the bird in surprise. Was this guy really supposed to be one half of Sora?

"Come on. It'll be fun" Riku tried again.

"You're going to fall of and break a leg" Roxas said.  
"And you won't?" Riku asked teasingly.

Roxas glared at him. "You're on!" he said eventually.

"You know, I think your friend might be right, you shouldn't try to race flut-fluts when you've just started riding, they can get overexcited and you might fall of" Kate said.

"Leave it Kate, they're not listening" Kairi said.

Kate just sighed as Riku drew a line in the sand with his keyblade. "Boys" she muttered.

"Alright then, first one to reach that palm tree over there is the winner" Riku announced.

"Fine. Try not to fall of the flut-flut" Roxas said.

"As if. See you at the finish line" Riku said.

And so they ran of, Kairi and the others followed them, though slightly slower.

Kate, Jak and Cornelius however, who were more experienced in riding fluts, sped up and ran after the two young boys.

Kate got to the three first, even before Roxas and Riku although they started later, next in was Roxas, shortly followed by Cornelius, next was Riku and Jak came last (since Spike was busy trying to chase lizards of the track)

The moment Kairi and the rest appeared, Riku jumped of his flut-flut.

"Fine, so you won. But that's just because this bird is too lazy" he said to Roxas.

"Yeah sure, blame it on poor old Tori" Roxas teased.

"He has a point there. Tori isn't as fast as he used to be; besides he's never been a racing bird. Blossy has youth on her side" Cornelius said.

"Alright then. How about a rematch? But this time I want a faster bird" Riku said.

"Phoenix would be the fastest" Jak said. "Though it may not be fair for Roxas".

"I really don't care what bird he rides" Roxas said.

"Good. Then it settled. Can Riku borrow Phoenix?" Cornelius asked.

"I'm not too sure, he's really a one-person bird, and he can't be ridden by just anyone" Kate said.

"Aw come on, I've handled way worse creatures in the past" Riku said.

"Go on Katy. After all he was pretty good at riding Tori at full speed right?" Daxter said from his lookout point at Jak's shoulder. "Just let him try."

Kate sighed, probably for the hundred's time that day. And she thought her brother and Cornelius were hard to handle?

But eventually she stepped down from the bird and petted him lightly.

"Be good boy now" she said, before handing Riku the ropes.

But as Riku took the ropes, Phoenix suddenly snapped at him, he didn't really bite, but stopped a few inches in front of his nose.

Riku didn't flinch though, he realised quickly the bird was just testing him.

"Careful fire-bird. I've fought heartless bigger than you" Riku warned him.

Phoenix eventually calmed down, and allowed the teen to get up on his back.

"See? That wasn't so bad was it" Riku said.

"Oh you just wait" Cornelius said and laughed. "Sure you wouldn't want to borrow Spot Roxas? I don't think Blossom will be able to keep up with Phoenix".

"Nah. I think I'll pass" Roxas said as he straightened up to get more comfortable on Blossom's back. "Ready?"  
"I was born ready. How about you Phoenix?" Riku said.

Phoenix squawked in reply, and cast a look at Blossom who made the same playful sound.

"There's the thing about Phoenix, he hates Spike but he seems to have the hots for his daughter" Cornelius giggled.

"Don't tell Spike" Jak added, he was having problems keeping Spike from attacking Phoenix.

"All racers to the starting line" Kairi said as Riku and Roxas led their birds towards the line she had drawn in the sand. "First one to reach those rocks over there is the winner. Ready? Set, go!"

The birds set of so fast it looked as though another sandstorm was brewing.

Only after the sand had finally cleared Kairi could see the boys… or at least the sandclouds behind them.

It looked as though Blossom and Phoenix were almost equal in speed, however one was falling behind, and from that distance it was impossible for Kairi to see which one, especially not through all the sand.

"Do they do this all the time?" Kate asked her.

"Sort of, yeah" Kairi said.

"So… who are you rooting for?" Kate asked.

"Oh? Well… I don't know. Both I guess" Kairi said.

_Roxas!_ Yelled a voice inside her head, which Kairi recognised as her nobody, Namine.

Kairi couldn't help but giggle at the sudden outburst.

"Maybe I should fly after them and see if everything goes right" Tanya said.

"Take the communicator with you then so we can hear whose winning" Cornelius said and threw a small chip up to the bird. **(Just a very small cell-phone thingy… smaller than anything that has ever appeared even in the Jak-world, but Tanya is a very small bird, so I thought she needed her own size)**

Tanya grabbed the chip with her claws and flew of.

Cornelius pulled out the little communicator he was using before; it didn't take long before Tanya came with the answer.

"Blossom and that kid Roxas are falling behind" She said. "But it may appear Riku has bitten over more than he can eat… uh-oh."

"What happened?" Kairi said, grabbing the communicator from Cornelius, and next she looked down at the sand dunes.

The fastest cloud was now slowing down, the second ran past it, but then stopped.

"He's fine. He just fell of" Tanya said and laughed. "He says he's just glad he's in the desert."

Kairi sighed in relief as Daxter and Cornelius broke out in laughter.

"It's not funny you guys" Kate said and glared at the two. "Jak, you tell them they're not listening to me anyway."  
"Er… yeah, that was mean, you guys" Jak said, but even he was giggling. "Maybe we should just go check on him."

"Boys!" Kate muttered as she got up on Tori's back. "They're all the same."  
They all ran deeper into the desert where the racers had stopped, and found Riku sitting in the sand, looking slightly offended but otherwise he was fine, Tanya resting on his head. Roxas and the two flut-fluts were only a few metres away, staring at him.

"Does this make me the winner?" Roxas asked.

"Shut up before I let you taste this" Riku said and pointed his keyblade at him.

"Well, I did try to warn you but you just wouldn't listen" Kate said. "Going to fast when you're not used to it makes it really hard to hold on".

Riku muttered something about an "accident" and Phoenix tripping as Mickey spoke up.

"Enough games you guys. We're almost that the crash site so we should start looking for the missing piece" he said.

"Finally!" Roxas sighed.

"Geez Roxas, where is your competitive spirit?" Riku asked.

"I guess a little shadow ran of with it" Roxas said. "Besides I've beaten you twice and Mickey is right, we're on a mission, remember?"

"Of course I remember, _nr 13_, however I don't see anything wrong in trying to have some fun on the way" Riku said.

"Don't call me that" Roxas said silently.

For a while no one said anything.

Riku and Roxas simply glared at each other before Riku got up and climbed back into Phoenix's saddle, before riding of without a word.

"Ehm… I guess those two aren't the best of friends?" Cornelius asked Kairi.

"Guess not" Kairi said sadly.

* * *

**Usagi: someone's mad…**

**Sora: gee. Wonder why?**

**Usagi: you may not have a heart but you certainly have your irony intact.**

**So yeah, this chapter shows a little more of what Riku and Roxas feel about each other… or what Riku feels anyway, Roxas don't feel anything.**

**Roxas: sure, rub it in.**

**Sora: it's the truth Roxas. Accept it.**

**Riku: you see why I hate that guy?  
Usagi: nope (snuggles Roxas).**

**Sora: why is he the one who's getting all the hugs?**

**Riku: you want to be hugged by her?**

**Sora: …not really (both runs of while Usagi is busy)**

**Usagi: so er… where'd they go?**

**Roxas: if you let go of me I can go find them.**

**Usagi: okay (lets go of Roxas).**

**Roxas: (runs of).**

**Usagi: oh great… now I'm all alone again.**

**Zakura: no you're not. I'm still here… oh look! A salad! (Runs of to eat the salad).**

**Usagi: (sniff…) Okay then… Seems like the boys have all deserted me and my own pet bunny left me for food (no surprise really, all my pets are like that…) Hope not my readers have, please review! I have to go see if I can find the boys; this fic really wouldn't work out without the main characters…**

**Kairi: but me and the Disney-characters are still here.**

**Usagi: and what are you going to do? Perform a dance?**

**Kairi: er…**

**Usagi: see yah later (goes in search of Roxas, Riku and Sora).**


	6. Of Heartless and Nobodies

**Zakura: hi… You were probably expecting my owner, Miss.Ecofreak aka: Usagi-Zakura here right now… but she's still out searching for the boy, heartless and nobody that ran of in the last chapter. (Door opens) oh, there she is now.**

**Usagi: (enters, carrying a transport cage) Hi people. I finally found the boys slacking of in a snow cave outside. But now they're back.**

**Sora: (is inside the cage) this is so humiliating.**

**Zakura: Where are Riku and Roxas?**

**Usagi: I dropped them of in the desert where they're supposed to be. But anyhows.**

**This chapter contains a lot of talking, and there's actually a fighting scene in it!**

**Sora: or a poor excuse for a fighting scene.**

**Usagi: correct! I don't do fighting scenes very well… It also introduces the metalheads, creepy creatures from the Jak and Daxter-series covered with metal.**

**Zakura: kind of like heartless covered in metal.**

**Usagi: probably… As with the heartless they come in various forms, and since I don't know the names of any of them not even I know which one appears in this chapter, just imagine a random collection of various metal-head-species.**

**As for the heartless appearing later on, they are of the kind with helmets that Sora encounters at his first visit to Traverse Town.

* * *

**

**Chapter 6**

**Of Heartless and Nobodies**

Not much was said the next few hours as they went looking for the missing piece.

Mickey had borrowed a few metal detectors from Keira and so everyone was using them to search in the sand.

Kairi would sometimes try to get a conversation going, especially between Roxas and Riku but only received one-word-replies from both of them.

"What's going on between those two?" Kate asked her, as Riku and Roxas went in each their direction again.

"It's kind of hard to explain, not sure if I understand it fully either" Kairi said.

"Well… if there's one thing I've noticed it's that Roxas has seemed somewhat distracted ever since I first met him, is there something wrong?" Kate asked.

"You wouldn't understand, but I guess I could tell you Roxas hasn't had an easy life" Kairi said.

"Neither of us has" Kate said. "I guess Cornelius told you about Baron Praxis?"

"He did. Didn't sound very nice" Kairi said.

"Not at all" Kate said sadly and cast a look over at Jak. "Jak here is probably the one who sacrificed the most. Being the rightful heir of our first king Mar, baron Praxis and his followers wanted him dead".

"Wait a second; didn't you say earlier that Jak was your younger brother?"

"Yeah…"

"Wouldn't that make you the rightful heir?"

Kate looked a little unsure for a moment. But then she finally answered.

"I'm not really an heir of Mar" she admitted. "Jak and I have the same mother but not the same father. His was the last king of Haven City, I never knew my father."  
"Oh. I'm sorry" Kairi said.

"It's okay. Jak's father always treated me like his daughter anyway" Kate said and smiled. "He was a great father, and a great king."

"Kate! Kairi! Watch out!" Jak suddenly yelled.

Kairi turned around just in time to jump out of the way as a strange creature covered in metal flew past her.

"What is that?" She asked in shock.

"Metalheads" Kate explained she drew a small gun and pointed it at the creature; Kairi drew her keyblade, noticing there were several others of these creatures around too that her friends were fighting.

"So these are the metalheads" Riku said.

"Afraid so, watch out for their claws" Cornelius said.

Riku quickly sliced one of the metalheads with his keyblade, leaving nothing but a greenish yellow gem on the ground.

"Wow. You're pretty good at this stuff" Cornelius said.

"I've had a lot of practice" Riku said. "This may be the first time I've ever faced up with a metalhead, yet we've fought other creatures before".

"What kind of creatures?" Cornelius asked as he shot one of the remaining metalheads.

"Just some creepy small thingies we call…" Riku said but then cut of, the metalheads were gone yet Riku still had a feeling something was not right.

"What?" Cornelius asked.

Before Riku had time to answer, dozens of black spots appeared around them, and out jumped several soldier heartless.

Now it was the elves' turn to be confused.

"What on earth is that?" Daxter screamed.

"Heartless!" Roxas said.

"That's the creatures I was talking about" Riku said.

"Wow. Thanks for sharing" Cornelius said as he shot one of the creatures. "But why did you bring them here?"

"We didn't. Heartless exists as long as there are people with darkness in their hearts" Mickey explained.

"Well in that case Haven City must be a paradise for them" Daxter said. "Maybe we should try to put up some advertisement and let them come her as tourists".

"You don't want that" Kairi said.

"I know, I was just kidding" Daxter said. "Get them Jak!"

"You wouldn't mind actually doing something for yourself for a change?" Jak asked, throwing a small hand-held gun at Daxter.

"Fine, if you insist" Daxter said grabbing the small gun.

Luckily the heartless weren't of the strongest types, and with so many fighting it didn't take long to defeat them all, yet it was still somewhat tiresome, the gang decided to take a break afterwards.

They went over to an oasis to stay out of the bright desert-sun; Daxter was having fun splashing in a small pond as the rest sat down under the palm trees.

Cornelius came up to Riku and Kairi.

"Hey Riku, I noticed during the fight your weapon is really cool, what is that?" he asked.

"This?" Riku asked, summoning his keyblade. "It's a keyblade, I call it the Way to Dawn".

"Awesome. Can I hold it?" Cornelius asked.

"You could try" Riku said throwing the keyblade at Cornelius, yet the moment he caught it the blade disappeared, and reappeared in Riku's hand.

"Whoa. That was totally weird" Cornelius said. "Wish my gun did that; I sometimes forget where I put it".

"You should get a morph gun instead of that little handheld one of yours, it's far too hard to miss" Jak said.

"I travel lightly. Size isn't all you know" Cornelius said.

"A keyblade huh? Doesn't look like a key to me" Daxter said.

"Not all of them do. You should se my friend Sora's. His looks just like a giant white key" Riku said.

"Who's that?" Daxter asked.

Riku was a little unsure of whether he should finish, he glanced over at Kairi, who quickly looked away, and Riku saw she was crying.

"You know what… never mind" Riku answered.

Daxter looked as if he wanted to ask a little more, but Jak sent him an angry look so he decided not to.

However the little ottsel was still curious of who this friend of Riku was, realising he couldn't ask Riku himself, he turned to the mouse, who was sitting under another tree, along with Donald and Goofy.

"Who's Sora?" Daxter asked straight out.

"Huh?" Mickey said.

"I heard Riku talk about a guy named Sora, and I was wondering who is he? And if he's your pal why's he not with you?" Daxter asked.

"Oh. I see. Well he is a friend of ours" Mickey said.

"So I've realised. But why don't Riku and Kairi want to talk about him?" Daxter asked.

"Because he isn't here" a voice behind him said.

There was Roxas, looking slightly annoyed.

"Where is he then?" Daxter asked.

"That's what I would like to know as well" Roxas said and walked away.

"Alright... what's wrong with those guys?" Daxter asked. "Especially that blonde kid. Would it kill him if he tried to cheer up a little?"

"It's not that he doesn't want to be happy, he's just… well…not a very emotional kid" Mickey said with a saddened look.

"Ok… maybe I should try cheer him up" Daxter said and tried to run as Mickey grabbed his tail.

"Better not. It won't work anyway" Mickey said.

"Really? Sure you're not underestimating me? I have a special power of getting anyone to laugh! Unless he's completely heartless that is" Daxter said proudly.

Mickey just stared at him. Daxter had no idea how right he really was.

"That's nice. But I suggest you leave him alone anyway. For your own good" Mickey said.

"That might not be a dumb idea, since I certainly haven't seen anything of that super power of yours" Tanya said from the tree she was sitting in.

"You really want to hear the whole story?"

Daxter turned around and saw Roxas had returned.

"Cause it's certainly not a happy one" the blonde continued.

"Well my life story isn't really a happy one either so I think I can handle it" Daxter said.

"Good. Because there's something you should know about those dark creatures back there. It might come in handy once too" Roxas said.

"Oh yeah, those "heartless?" Surely they're not truly heartless are they? Or they wouldn't even be alive" Daxter said.

"One can live without their hearts, it's just not that much of an exiting life" Roxas said. "Heartless are created out of the darkness in people's hearts, it resides in every heart. If a person looses his or her heart they become heartless, yet that's not all. I guess you can say most heartless aren't the smartest of the bunch. They have no feelings or mind to talk about, but when a person with a very strong will become a heartless, the body and mind left behind are reborn into a new being or non-being perhaps would be more appropriate…"

"What kind of being?" Daxter asked.

"A nobody" Roxas replied. "Most are about as weak as the heartless, yet there are those who still keep their original forms, with little changes. However there is one big difference. They have no hearts or any feelings. Only half a person so to say."

"I see. And you're one of those?" Daxter asked.

"Pretty much" Roxas answered. "So don't even try to "cheer me up". Cause as Mickey says it won't work".

Roxas turned to leave, as Daxter looked as if he was thinking very hard on something.

"Hey Roxas!" he said.

Roxas turned around.

"I just thought of something… did you notice that if you remove the X from your name and switch the letters around a little… it would spell Sora?" Daxter asked.

Roxas just stared at him for a moment; the ottsel certainly wasn't as dumb as he looked.

"Well… guess that answered your first question" he said and walked away.

* * *

**Zakura: Daxter smart? Well that one was new.**

**Daxter: I heard that! **

**Zakura: why are so many game characters appearing at your house today?**

**Usagi: I have no idea. Do you know Mario?**

**Super Mario: It'sa me! Mario!**

**Zakura: o...k...**

**Sora: GET ME OUT OF THIS CAGE!**

**Usagi: But enough of that. Please review or Sora will be stuck in this cage forever.**

**Sora: (whines)**


	7. The Dream

**Usagi: Ohoi people!**

**Cloud: (eating cookies)**

**Usagi: It took me some more time writing this chapter, but it was only…**

**Zakura: boss?**

**Usagi: what is it?**

**Zakura: what is Cloud doing in your house?**

**Usagi: (looks at Cloud) eating cookies. What does it look like?**

**Zakura: but _why?_**

**Usagi: probably because he likes cookies**

**Zakura: …**

**Usagi: as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted. I took some time writing this because I wanted everything to be right…not sure if is… but I'm hoping it'll turn out good. It also hints somewhat to where our favourite little heartless is.**

**Zakura: currently in your living room trying to steal Cloud's cookies?**

**Usagi: no in the fic… Sora, leave Cloud alone!**

**Sora: But I want cookies too!

* * *

**

**Chapter 7**

**The Dream**

Night fell, and as the temperature quickly started dropping the gang decided they might as well stay at the oasis, and continue the search the next morning.

Roxas wasn't sleeping very well; he was having a bad dream… or was it a dream?

_I was running through a hallway, not knowing where I was going, but I knew I had to be somewhere._

_The walls around me were all white, but I saw no light yet I still found my way._

_Keep going! A voice inside me demanded._

_I didn't know for how long I had been running, it didn't matter. Nothing did, as long as I got to wherever I was going._

"_Where is it?"_

"_Patience. It's coming."_

_I saw a door opening, a cloaked figure appeared._

"_Aha. There it is" said the figure._

_I paid no attention to the figure, I just ran past him and into the room._

_Inside the walls were all white, a woman dressed in a dark cloak, could be black? My eyes couldn't tell. She turned around and smiled at me._

"_Finally" She said. "We've been waiting Sora."  
_Roxas woke up instantly, he tried to remember the settings of the dream, and they all looked strangely familiar.

Or did it?

_Is that how a heartless sees the world?_ Roxas wondered.

He hadn't really thought about how a heartless' vision was like; then again they had yellow eyes, so they probably didn't have a very good colour-vision.

But the woman, she should have been recognisable.

Roxas was sure he had seen her before, if not, Sora had seen her. But who was she?

The more he tried to remember her face the more he seemed to be forgetting. Had it only been a dream?

It had happened once before that Roxas had been seeing Sora's memories in a dream, yet this was more than just memories.

Should he tell Riku? Nah… he'd probably just get mad again.

But what about Kairi? Speaking of which…

"Can't sleep either?"

The red-haired girl in question sat down next to him.

"Guess not. What's your excuse?" Roxas asked.

"Well, for the first Riku snores, second I kept thinking about _him_" Kairi said. "Do you think we'll be able to save him?"

Roxas wasn't sure how to answer that, to be honest he didn't think there was much hope, but he didn't want to tell Kairi.

Instead he decided to tell her the other thing.

"I had a dream about him" he said shortly.

Kairi looked up.

"Are you sure? Where is he?" she asked.

"I don't know. It wasn't very long and the dream was kind of blurry" Roxas said.

"Oh" Kairi said, sounding disappointed, but then she lit up again. "But… it's a start isn't it? At least we know he's alive."

"Sure. Heartless or not, Sora's not going down that easily" Roxas said.

"Of course he won't" Kairi said and smiled.

Roxas smiled back which for some reason caused Kairi to giggle.

"What?" he asked.

"I didn't know nobodies smiled" she said, still giggling. "It's cute".

"Just because we don't have feelings doesn't know we don't know what it's like, just ask Namine" Roxas said.

"Good point" Kairi said. "You should definitely smile some more. Might help you get some new friends too."

"And what makes you think I want more?" Roxas asked.

"Well at least cheer up a little, everyone keeps asking why you look so depressed" Kairi answered.

"Well you and I both know I'm not depressed."

"Precisely. So stop acting like you are" Kairi said and kissed Roxas on the cheek, this caused the nobody to fall backwards into the sand.

"Kairi! What the? Why did you do that?" Roxas asked in surprise.

Kairi giggled again. "Felt like it" she answered.

Roxas kept staring at her, wondering whether Sora would murder him for this if they ever found him again… then again he and Sora were technically the same, so that may count as suicide.

Then for a moment, he thought her face changed, he saw a girl looking quite similar to Kairi, yet with blonde hair, smiling at him.

It only lasted for a short moment before all he could see was Kairi again, still smiling in the same way.

A short while passed while none of them said anything. Roxas sat up against a palm tree and gazed out on the stars on the sky, Kairi looked at the stars as well.

"Wonder which one of them is Destiny Islands" Kairi suddenly said.

"You mean you don't know?" Roxas asked.

"Do you?" Kairi asked.

Roxas thought for a moment, before realising he (or Sora for that matter) had never really seen Destiny Islands from this distance before.

"No" he admitted. "To tell the truth I don't even know where in the universe we are".

"Well, Donald was driving, but didn't Mickey say anything about a guy name Yen Sid?" Kairi said.

"Yeah. So we must be somewhere on the way between Destiny Islands and Twilight Town" Roxas said, he searched the sky, before noticing a single star that looked all too familiar. "That one" he said.

"What?"  
"That star over there, that's Twilight Town" Roxas said. "I'd recognise it any day."

"Well of course" Kairi said. "You used to live there didn't you?"

"Not really. I spent a week in a computer simulation made up by DiZ, wouldn't really count as "living there" Roxas said. "Still… it felt more like home than the World That Never Was did".

"Can you find that?" Kairi asked.

"No. It's called the World That _Never_ Was for a reason you know" Roxas said. "You can't just find it on the night sky" Roxas explained.

"Oh right. I should have known" Kairi said.

A few minutes passed when none of them spoke, all that was heard was the snoring from their friends (Riku was loudest) and some occasional twittering from the birds, as Spike tried to pick a fight with the other birds (he was tied up at least 20 feet away from them though).

Roxas kept looking up at the sky for a while, but then something on the ground caught his eye.

"Kairi? Did you see something just now?" he asked.

"Where?" Kairi asked.

Roxas pointed to the sand-dunes, but there was nothing.

"What did it look like?" Kairi asked.

"I couldn't see… but I saw a flash of light, as if someone was making a fire or something" Roxas said.

Kairi looked at the dunes, and then suddenly a flash of orange light, not much but it was easy to spot in the dark night.

"What was that?" She asked.

"Let's find out" Roxas said and got to his feet.

The two teens walked out of camp and into the desert.

It was easier to move now than by day, seeing as it was no longer as hot, it was actually quite cool. Kairi wondered how a place that was so warm by day could change so dramatically once the sun set.

Soon they came to the place where they had seen the fire, or whatever it was, and found a large lizard, about the size of a flut-flut** (for those of you who have played Jak3: It's a leaper lizard)** chasing a small red ottsel.

"Is this what we've been looking for?" Roxas asked.

"We should help the poor guy" Kairi said.

"What? It's only the course of nature" Roxas said.

Kairi cast him an annoyed look. Roxas sighed.

"Fine" he said, pulling out the oathkeeper as he jumped over the sand-dune.

The lizard looked up as he arrived, noticing the keyblade right away, it figured it wasn't that desperate for food and ran of.

Roxas then turned his attention to the red ottsel, it had its back turned and looked as though it was only waiting for the unavoidable, but as it never came, the ottsel turned around and let out a gasp. Roxas did the same, he knew this creature.

* * *

**Usagi: cliffhanger!**

**Riku: I don't snore!**

**Usagi: what was that?**

**Riku: I'm just saying I don't snore!**

**Kairi: yes you do. Why do you think I suggested leaving with the raft without you?**

**Riku: (blinks) you did that? When?**

**Usagi: (turns on her Playstation 2, showing the exact scene from KH1)**

**Riku: (glares at Kairi).**

**Kairi: (giggling) I was just kidding.**

**Usagi: So yeah… a lot of interesting stuff happened in this chapter I hope and for anyone who wonders who the red ottsel is… you just have to wait until the next chapter (evil laugh)**

**Please review, and maybe the next chapter will be up sooner.**

**Cloud: do you have more of these cookies? Your pet heartless stole mine...**

**Sora: I am not her pet! (eats Cloud's cookies)**


	8. Got it Memorized?

**Usagi: Hiya! We're back with another exiting chapter… or maybe not that exiting…but at least we figure out who the mystery ottsel is!**

**Zakura: as if the title didn't already… what is Sephiroth doing here?**

**Sephiroth: (stands around doing nothing)**

**Usagi: I don't know…**

**Zakura: you just made it your goal to have plenty of random game characters in your house didn't you?**

**Usagi: yup.**

**Zakura: idiot**

**Usagi: should I get Sasuke?**

**(Sasuke (from Naruto) appears out of nowhere).**

**Zakura: I love you!**

**Usagi: I know. **

**Sasuke: why am I here?**

**Sephiroth: I was just about to ask the same thing…**

**Usagi: but back to business. This chapter finally reveals the identity of the mystery ottsel, who is (drumroll)…

* * *

**

**Chapter 8**

**Got it Memorized?**

Roxas stared at he ottsel.

Certainly he knew he hadn't known any other ottsels in his or Sora's life than Daxter, however this one… He couldn't understand how it was possible, yet it all made sense, concerning the lights they had been seeing.

The ottsel was covered in mostly red fur, yet the belly was white, as well as the face, under his eyes he had black streaks.

"Axel?" Roxas asked in disbelief.

The ottsel looked just as confused.

"Roxas? It really is you!" he said suddenly and jumped at the blonde.

"Hey! Get of!" Roxas said and pushed the animal of. "What are you doing here? And why are you all…fuzzy?"  
"I was about to ask you the same thing. Minus the fuzzy-ness" Axel said.

"I asked first" Roxas said, as Kairi walked up from behind the sand dunes. "I thought you died. I saw it!"

"Well if it's any comfort that's what I thought too! But then suddenly I found myself in this strange place. I went out to explore and I fell into a hole filled with some dark liquid stuff and came out looking like this!" Axel said and pointed to his fluffy tail.

"Have you been walking around in the desert all this time?" Kairi asked.

"No. I did go to that city over there, but it wasn't a very fun place. But I found this other place, Haven City. It was a little better" Axel said.

"Thanks. We've been there" Roxas said. "But what were you doing back out here?"

"Well uhm… I thought I'd try capturing one of those leaper lizards. They are really fast and easy to train they say…" Axel said.

"The ones that almost ate you?" Roxas asked

"You know, I was just about to show it who was the boss before you showed up and chased it away! Got it memorised?" Axel said.

"Sure Axel. If you say so" Roxas said, rolling his eyes.

"Well now I've come with my explanation. Now what are you two doing here? And where's your boyfriend Sora?" Axel asked, directing the last question at Kairi of course.

"Right. About that…" Kairi said.

* * *

"You've got to be kidding me!" Axel said.

"What? It's not like you didn't want this to happen from the start" Riku said, not trying to hide the annoyance in his voice.

They were back at the camp again, where Axel had to repeat his somewhat short story in return of getting some answers.

"I can't say I've never thought of the idea but I'd never actually _do_ anything that may turn Sora into a heartless, got it memorised?" Axel said. "I know all too well how it is to live without a heart… I wouldn't recommend it."

"That's a really sad story" Kate said, wiping her face.

Despite Donald's complains, the team had decided to explain their situation to the elves (+Tanya and Daxter, though the ottsel already knew some of the story).

"So your boyfriend has turned into one of those little heartless-thingies?" Cornelius asked. "How do you now he wasn't among those we…"

"He wasn't" Roxas said quickly.

Cornelius looked at Roxas with a confused look, but it was Riku who answered.

"Sora's heartless is a shadow, they are the weakest of heartless, not like the soldiers we saw yesterday" he said. "Heartless are born from the darkness in people's heart, so if you have little darkness in your heart you'll only become a low-ranked heartless".

"What if you don't have any darkness in your heart?" Kate asked.

"That is extremely rare" Riku and glanced over at Kairi. "As a rule there is darkness in every heart. But _if_ your heart is completely pure when you loose it, you won't become a heartless at all".

"So what are you going to do now? Try to find this heartless?" Axel asked. "And if you do find it; what are you going to do with it?"

"We'll think of something" Riku said.

"Oh really?" Axel said. "Forgive me for not being very optimistic, I know you managed to save him once before although the chances of anything like that happening was one in a million. But now if what you're telling me is true, it's been two days since Sora lost his heart, also the heartless taking it has died, so how are you planning to get it back?"

"We won't know that it won't work until we try right? But what do you care about Sora anyway?" Riku asked.

"Just because I don't have a heart does not mean I don't care, Sora is just as much a friend of mine as Roxas is, being his other half…" Axel said. "Although I have my doubt about this plan if you need any help…"

"No" Riku said, interrupting the ottsel's babbling.

"Gawrsh Riku, I think he only wants to help" Goofy said.

"Goofy! He's from the organization! We can't trust him!" Donald said.

"Was. He left the organization didn't he? In fact he even saved us from a bunch of nobodies" Goofy said.

"Putting my life on the line I might add. Got it memorized?" Axel added.

"But you did also kidnap Kairi before that" Riku said.

"Temporary insanity. Please forgive me" Axel said.

"I believe him. Sora told me he had already apologised for that" Kairi said. "Why not give him a chance? What harm can he do?"

Riku just looked from Kairi, to the ottsel, not sure what to say.

"What do you think your majesty?" Goofy asked.

"Well, I'm not sure. Roxas, you know him from before, can we trust him?" Mickey said.

Roxas sighed, he was sure that no matter what he said it wouldn't make any difference for Riku, but then again Mickey was king of Disney castle and a good friend of Riku as well…and it was technically his gummi ship.

"Axel means no harm. I trust him" he said.

"Alright. I can see I'm outnumbered" Riku said. "Fine. You can come. But I'll be keeping an eye on you".

"I knew I could count on you Roxas! And while we're at it, is this thing yours?" Axel asked, holding up a gummi-piece.

Riku grabbed the piece.

"This is the one we've been looking for! Where did you find it?" he asked.

"In the sand, I actually tripped over it. I figured it was from a gummi ship yet I've never seen one in this world" Axel explained.

"Great! That means we can finally get the gummi ship fixed and get going!" Donald said.

"Leaving so soon? You haven't even seen half of what Haven City has to offer" Daxter said.

"Sorry little guy. But we're on an important mission, remember?" Mickey said.

"But I'm sure we can come back once we're finished, and then Sora could come along to. I'm sure he would love it here" Kairi said.

"Sure we'll be back. But let's just get the flut-fluts ready and leave. The sun should be up in a few hours and I'd like to get out of this desert before the heat returns" Riku said.

* * *

They saddled up the birds in nearly no time, and soon they were on their way.

Axel was riding Blossom with Roxas, and Riku was still riding Phoenix. He was okay riding the leader-bird, as long as they weren't running too fast.

* * *

When they returned to Haven, the sun had just started rising, and people were getting ready to go to work all over the city.

The party made their way back to the Freedom League's HQ, which was already in full activity when they arrived.

Keira hadn't arrived yet, but the chipmunks were more than ready to put the missing piece back in position, they had already helped Keira fix the rest of the ship the day before.

"This may take some time" Dale said. "Although the piece is small we need to make sure it's properly fixed. We wouldn't want it to fall of again".

"Alrighty then. Let's go upstairs and see Ashelin in the meantime. Maybe we could get some juicy details on what's going on in the FL as well" Cornelius said.

"If you're that curious about what the Freedom League is doing why don't you just join?" Kate asked.

"And work under Torn? Not a chance. Besides blue isn't my colour" Cornelius said.

They took the elevator up to the top story; there they met Torn and Ashelin again, along with some new people.

"So you're back? Did you find what you needed?" Ashelin said.

"Chip and Dale are fastening it as we speak. So I guess we're off in a few hours" Mickey said.

"That's nice" Ashelin said, turning her face back towards the holographic screen in front of her.

"So… what's up?" Cornelius asked.

"Well, apparently some metalheads were trying to break through the city wall, nothing much, so I sent a few guards of to investigate" she said.

"I wouldn't be too sure" said another man.

He was clearly much older than the others, he had long white beard and a giant log attached to his head. He was using a walking stick, on it sat a small bird that looked similar to Tanya the sparrowflut, Cornelius' bird.

But the thing that caught Roxas' attention was that his skin was pale green. There was clearly something special about this old man.

"Aw, what now Samos?" Daxter asked. "Did the shrubs warn you some great danger again?"

"It wasn't shrubs. It was the trees" the man, Samos said, hitting Daxter on the head with his walking stick. "They have been talking of some new creatures lurking around the city lately. Even the metalheads seem to avoid them."

"How did they look like?" Roxas asked.

"Well… according to the trees, there were many different creatures, all with glowing yellow eyes like the metalheads, most of them were black but some also had other colours" Samos said.

Roxas turned back to his friends. "What do you think?"

"Sounds like heartless alright" Riku said.

"Do you know these creatures?" Ashelin said.

"Long story. I guess we should go check it out. Where did you say they were?" Riku asked.

* * *

**Usagi: to be continued**

**Sasuke: can I go home now?**

**Usagi: no. I guess I should explain a little something concerning Axel the ottsel… his new form comes out of my inability to draw humans, so I tend to draw the characters as animals… I drew Axel as an ottsel and really liked the way he turned out. So I decided to do the same as Naughty Dog did in their first game about Jak and Daxter, where Dax falls into a hole of "Dark Eco" (bad stuff) and transforms into an ottsel. Exactly the same thing happened to Axel, and why? Because he's so cute! (Snuggles Axel)**

**Axel: can't breathe! Save me Roxas!**

**Roxas: Not now. I'm trying to teach my heartless to do tricks! (Holds up a ring in front of Shadow-Sora) Come on boy. Jump through the ring.**

**Sora: this is so humiliating…**

**Usagi: Please don't ask me how Axel survived... I don't know, but I refuse to just let him die. I've already brought back Roxas so I had to bring back Axel as well.**

**Other news, I made a coverart for this fic! There's a link to it in my profile page (just look down until you find the information about "Lost in the Darkness") Or you could find it quite easily at my Deviantart-account, Usagi-Zakura (also link in my profile. It's currently my featured Deviation. Called Coverart-Lost in Darkness) I also have pictures of ottsel-Axel in my gallery, as well as various other KH-ottsels…**

**Riku: how about drawing us as humans for once?**

**Usagi: …+ a badly drawn Riku as human, (of course the coverart features all as humans, except Axel and Sora and of course the Disney-characters), Sora as a lion and Riku as a hyena!**

**Please check them out, and review this fic!**

**Roxas: Sora ate my ring…**

**Usagi: and I thought heartless only ate hearts…**


	9. The Keyhole

**Usagi: Hi we're back! With new excitement and fun!**

**Sora: there's nothing funny about this!**

**Usagi: who made you this sappy?**

**Sora: you did… when you had me turned into a heartless!**

**Usagi: oh right… well you can't really say I'm the first one to think of that, just check out KH1**

**Sora: why don't you finish that game before you start talking?**

**Usagi: hey! I've seen the cutscenes! And I've gotten as far as Atlantica and Halloween Town. **

**Sora: (sulks)**

**Usagi: idiot. Well either way, here's the next chapter.

* * *

**

**Chapter 9**

**The Keyhole**

Jak and Cornelius brought the party out to the outside of the city walls.

They reached a place that looked like a deserted part of Haven City; it had been separated from the rest of the city with a newer wall, which now had several cracks.

More of the men in blue armour, the freedom league guards, were checking the damage.

"Hi Simon, where are the monsters?" Cornelius asked.

One of the guards turned around and removed his mask, revealing a man with red and brown hair around Jak's age.

"They disappeared just before we got here, but I tell you, I'm starting to doubt they were even metalheads" he said.

"How come?" Cornelius asked.

"Well this for a start" Simon said, pointing to a small metalhead on the ground.

The creature was still alive, yet barely, it was panting heavily and had scars all over, yet mostly on the chest.

"And?" Cornelius asked.

"When we arrived the other creatures were attacking this one, metalheads rarely turn on their own especially not right before a battle situation, also the metalhead has scar mostly on the belly, metalheads don't care less where they strike" Simon explained.

"You sound like you've studied them" Axel said.

"I would like to learn as much as I can about my enemies, gives us the advantage in battle" Simon explained.

Axel walked up to examine the monster closer.

"No doubt about it, this is the work of a shadow-heartless, or several" he said.

"What did you call them?" Simon asked.

"Heartless. Got it memorized? Monsters with no hearts" Axel said. "See how they've obviously attacked this metalhead going for its chest; they were after its heart. They prey upon the darkness in other creature's hearts."

"No wonder they were after the metalheads" Daxter said. "Those things were made out of darkness".

"The heartless are certainly showing up a lot lately. We met some in the desert as well. At least this time it was only the weakest kind, but it wouldn't surprise me if there were some bigger bad boys around as well" Riku said.

"You guys seem to know a lot about these "Heartless". So tell me, what are they and where are they from?" Simon asked.

"Well where do I start? The heartless are creatures made from the darkness in peoples' hearts. If a person looses his or her heart, they turn into heartless, which in turn preys on the darkness in other peoples' hearts. Where they are from? I believe I just answered that" Riku said.

"Aw come on! If a person looses his or her heart he or she would die" another one of the guards said in a know-it-all kind of way.

"Sometimes… not always" Roxas said.

"Really? Have you even seen it happen?" the guard asked.

Roxas replied with the death-glare of doom.

"As a matter of fact we have, and it's not pretty" Riku said. "So I'd suggest you tread carefully around these heartless".

"Hah! I've beaten more metalheads than you can count… ("I do believe he's capable of counting to 7, Kim" Cornelius added) …shut up Cornelius. I'm not going to stand her listening to some dumb kid telling me to look out for little black monsters" the guard said and walked of. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some monsters to beat the crap out of!"

He set of towards the broken buildings with a confident look upon his face.

Not caring that in a matter of seconds he had made all the newcomers hate him.

"You know what? Even though he's technically on our side I so wish those heartless would just murder that guy" Cornelius said.

Soon after he had said that, 10-12 shadow heartless suddenly sprung out of the ground surrounding Kim.

"It was a joke!" Cornelius yelled, but that didn't really help anyway.

The heartless all threw themselves at Kim, the party could hear him screaming but then it stopped, the heartless moved away, but Kim was nowhere to be seen.

"Now you believe me?" Riku asked, and summoned his keyblade.

"I hate to say it but he had it coming" Roxas said, as he summoned the oathkeeper and oblivion.

"So these are the heartless" Simon said, pulling out a gun. "Somehow I thought they would be bigger".

Just as he said that, a bigger heartless arrived. The darkside.

"Why did I open my big fat mouth?" the guard sighed.

Axel summoned his chakrams, despite the fact that they were half his size he was still able to hold them.

"Time to show these heartless who the boss is. Got it memorized?" he said.

One dramatic fight later and the last heartless disappeared in a flash of fire.

"I don't like all these heartless appearing all of a sudden, I take it you've never seen any of these before?" Riku asked.

"Nope. Never even heard of them" Simon said. "But if this is the best they can do they shouldn't be too hard. We've beaten the metalheads already and I'm sure we can take these as well".

"Don't be too optimistic. Heartless multiply like crazy in such a place and if they find the keyhole consider yourself screwed. Got it memorized?" Axel said.

"What keyhole?" Simon asked.

"Oh my! He's right. This world's keyhole hasn't been sealed!" Mickey said. "We better find it and lock it of!"

"What keyhole??" Simon repeated.

"Kind of a long story. But you wouldn't happen to know of any big mysterious keyhole somewhere? It might be well hidden inside a cave or something" Roxas said.

The elves just looked at him like big living question marks, but then again these guys were fighting with giant keys so maybe it meant sense that they were looking for keyholes to seal for some reason.

"You know, I know nothing about any keyhole but there are lots of hiding places in this world" Daxter said. "But I'm thinking if this has anything to do with the security of our world then maybe you'll find it within the planet core that is where the planet protection system is anyway".

"This planet as its own protection system?" Axel asked.

"You arrived after the dark makers attacked didn't you?" Daxter said.

* * *

**(Quick history lesson for those of you who haven't played Jak3: SPOILERS!**

**Jak and Daxter's world was created by the almighty precursors, who at the time were at war with their dark counterparts, the dark makers, who also created the metalheads.  
In order to protect the planet the precursors made a giant weapon hidden within the planet, which blew the dark maker's ship to bits.)

* * *

**

"We might as well check it out. Show us the way" Riku said.

Daxter and the rest lead their new friends back into Haven City, until they arrived to some sort of transportation system, consisting of two small vehicles and a tunnel which apparently lead to the core of the planet.

"These are the precursor subrails" Daxter explained. "But these vehicles don't hold many extra passengers, Jak and I will be going to show you the way, so I'm guessing we have room for maximum 3 of you".

It was soon decided Roxas and Riku would go; Mickey came along to prevent the two from killing each other, and Axel to, he was small enough to fit with the others as long as he stayed put on Roxas' shoulder through the whole trip.

"Next stop: Core of the planet. Please keep hands and feet inside the car or you may end up burned to a crisp" Daxter said.

The planet core was dark.

Pitch dark, but just as Roxas was beginning to wonder how on earth they were supposed to find a keyhole in this darkness he noticed several things started glowing around him.

The area around the subrail became gradually brighter as various strange golden artefacts came into view; right in front of them was a platform, and a large statue of something that resembled a giant mosquito.

The vehicles they were riding stopped in front of the platform and the heroes stepped out.

"Nice pad. Kind of like home" Axel said.

"We didn't come here to look at the scenery, let's just find that keyhole" Riku said.

Since no heartless had been able to get into Haven City, there were none hiding in the core either, and that turned out to be a good thing cause within not long they discovered a keyhole in one of the walls.

"Move over" Mickey said, pulling out his keyblade.

A beam of light came out of it and a click was heard, to confirm that the hole was locked.

"That was cool! Do it again" Daxter said.

"I can't lock a keyhole more than once" Mickey laughed.

"Really? And here I was thinking the king of Disney Castle could do anything" said a new voice.

The gang turned around to look at the newcomer, who had appeared literally out of nowhere.

The stranger was wearing a black cloak, similar to the ones Organization XIII used to wear, however he was far bigger than any member of the organization.

"Who are you?" Riku asked, pulling out his keyblade immediately.

The stranger just laughed.

"Well aren't you a funny gang. Two little rats, an elf, a human boy, a mouse and even the nobody of the great keyblade master" he said.

"How do you know…?" Roxas started but the stranger cut him of.

"Oh I know all about you Roxas. Nr 13, the key of destiny or whatever the organization used to call you" the stranger said.

"Who _are _you?" Riku repeated.

"Oh, just another nobody, and now it appears I'm doomed to stay that way too since your friend killed my other" the stranger said.

"So the heartless that attacked m… that was you?" Roxas asked.

"It was my heartless, I was the one who ordered it to attack as well, though who would have known it could prove to be so clumsy it got itself killed by a kid who was practically dying already" the stranger said.

"Shut up!" Riku yelled and charged at the stranger, who quickly teleported away so Riku missed.

"Temper Riku, if you killed me how do you expect to find your friend's heartless?" the stranger asked.

"You know where Sora is?" Riku asked in surprise.

"Certainly. And I might even tell you, if you agreed to help us" the stranger said.

"Why don't you tell us who you are first? You seem to know quite a lot about us already" Mickey said.

"Sigh. Okay, if you have to know boat-boy" the stranger said as he pulled his hood of.

* * *

**Usagi: dun dun dun dun! Say this is getting long. How about I just stop the fic right here?**

**Readers: (glare)**

**Crew: (death glare)**

**Sora: (death glare scale 109087877)**

**Usagi: relax! I'm kidding. So who could this stranger be? Hint: this time it's NOT someone in the organization, though he's dressed like one. There should be another hint in his last line here too, he does appear in KH2.**

**Roxas: Me?**

**Usagi: how's that even possible? 1. You were in the organization. 2. Your heartless cannot attack Sora because Sora IS your heartless. 3. You were in the room looking at him jerk!**

**Roxas: it was just a suggestion…**

**Usagi: well then that rules out Roxas, Demyx (unfortunately), Axel, Xemnas, Zexion, Laexus, Marluxia, Saix, Larxene, Vexen, Xigbar, Xaldin, Luxord and Daisy Duck…**

**Zakura: Daisy Duck???**

**Usagi: …and the stranger is…read the next chapter to find out. Now where's my obligatory game character cameo?**

**Link appears, stepping on Kairi's foot as he enters.**

**Kairi: hey! You stepped on my foot!**

**Link: well exsuuuuse me Princess.**

**Usagi: okay there he is, with his ever-so annoying quote… of you go (throws Link out of the window) **

**And before you go, just a small note on the Freedom League guards appearing in this chapter. Though they're not really important, both appear in other fanfics of mine. Simon appears briefly in Growing up in Haven City, as one of Cornelius' friends, and Kim is so far the only character created for the Dork-series who made his way into a serious fic. In Dork2 he appears as a quite stupid Krimson Guard, or one of the smarter, but still an idiot, since he appears in Dork. He's still an idiot, now he's a heartless. Not much said.**

**Now please review, or Demyx will sing you a song.**

**Demyx: yeah I...what do you mean "or"?**


	10. The Journey Continues

**Roxas: are you going to start every chapter like this? Introducing a new character who was nearly introduced already?**

**Usagi: huh? No. Only two… I think.**

**Roxas: Would it kill you to actually reveal a character's identity at the end of the chapter instead of leaving a cliffhanger?**

**Usagi: yup**

**Roxas: figured as much… I'm gonna go raid the fridge now.**

**Usagi: you do tha…HEY! (Runs to stop him)**

**Zakura: Usagi-chan, what about the intro?... oh well. I'd better take it then. This chapter is kind of short since my owner ran out of stuff to write, so she made a little argument between Riku and Axel at the end, she figured, as Roxas and Riku can't seem to get along in this fic the chances of Riku and Axel getting along is as big as the chances of Kingdom Hearts turning out to be not darkness, not light, but in fact waffles.**

**Usagi: (returns, pulling Roxas away from the kitchen) Have you been watching Kingdom Hearts Spoof on YouTube?**

**Zakura: yeah...**

**Usagi: okay whatever. Enjoy the chapter.

* * *

**

**Chapter 10**

**The Journey continues**

"Pete!" Mickey said in surprise.

"That's right you little pipsqueaks" Pete's nobody said. "You didn't think a little squad of heartless could bring you down did you?"

"To me it appears they already did" Roxas said.

"Why sure, unfortunately I lost my heart to those brats, but frankly I've never felt freer in my life. No more annoying feelings to keep me from doing what I really want, no matter how selfish or evil it might be" Pete added with a smirk. "Why don't you agree?"

"Quit your yabbering! You said you knew where Sora was so tell me, where is he?" Riku asked.

"Does he have a habit of asking the same question twice?" Pete asked Roxas, annoying Riku even more by ignoring him.

"Only when he doesn't get an answer, then he's likely to hurt you real bad" Roxas said. "And just in case you didn't know, we nobodies _do_ feel pain so I suggest you answer". **(I'm not really sure if nobodies feel pain or not but in this fic they do, it's mostly emotions they can't feel)**

"He-hey. Calm down kid, I was just getting to that" Pete said, directing his attention to Riku this time, whose keyblade was shaking dangerously in his hand. "As I was about to say, my dear Maleficent has agreed to let you meet your friend if you agree to help her on her little "project"."

The Road To Dawn was suddenly positioned dangerously close to Pete's neck before the nobody had time to even notice Riku had moved. (That either proves Riku is fast or Pete very slow, probably both).

"So that's a no?" Pete asked.

"Pretty much. Now tell me where Sora is or you'll end up loosing more than just your heart" Riku snarled.

"Sorry kid. If you won't help me, I won't help you either" Pete said and backed of before he disappeared into darkness.

Out of pure anger, Riku threw his keyblade into the ground just where Pete had disappeared.

Mickey walked up to him.

"Don't mind him Riku, he probably wouldn't have told us anyway" the king said.

"He knows" Riku said. "He knows all too well where Sora is, he's mocking us!"

"We'll find him" Mickey said. "Pete's nobody is just as dumb as the original Pete, he gave of more than he was supposed to".

"Like what?" Riku asked.

"Were you even listening? He's obviously with Maleficent, and she's not exactly known for keeping a low profile. If we find her we'll find Sora too" Mickey said. "She lost Hollow Bastion after Sora beat her the first time, since then we know she's been looking for a new castle, if only we could figure out where she is now."

Roxas suddenly thought of the dream he had earlier, all white walls…such a familiar place.

"I think I know where it is" he said.

Mickey, Riku, Axel and even Jak and Daxter looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"_You_ do?" Riku asked.

Roxas nodded. "The Castle that Never Was, it has to be".

"How can you be so sure?" Mickey asked.

"Well first of all that was the last castle she set her eyes on, after the cornerstone of light prevented her from taking over Disney Castle" Roxas explained. "Second, I had a dream last night where I saw Maleficent and Sora in the World that Never Was."

"You saw Sora? The heartless?" Riku asked in disbelief.

"Well, not really saw…I could see things from his eyes" Roxas said.

"Does heartless and nobodies have some kind of connection to each other?" Riku asked the king; Mickey shrugged and looked at Axel, him being the oldest nobody in the room.

"I have heard of that happening a few times" Axel said. "Some nobodies have visions telling of what their heartless counterparts are doing. That's how Xemnas figured out about Roxas, since Xeanort's heartless had been present when Sora turned into a heartless for the first time".

"Can you do that as well?" Daxter asked.

"I haven't seen or heard from my other half since the day I lost my heart, it probably died ages ago" Axel said.

"Do you know what he's doing now?" Riku asked Roxas.

Roxas shook his head. "It doesn't work that way."

Riku sighed, and picked up his keyblade.

"Fine. So you've proven you're not completely worthless. At least now we have something to follow" he said. "Chip and Dale should be ready by now, so let's just get back to the gummi ship."

* * *

Wasting no time getting back to the garage, Riku, Roxas and the king decided to explain what they had seen in the cave while in the gummi ship, as they set the coordinates for the World that Never Was.

"Gawrsh. Pete lost his heart too?" Goofy said.

"Well if Pete did then I'm sure Maleficent has turned into a nobody as well. As if the two of them weren't bad enough already" Donald said.

"Are you sure we're going to find Sora in her castle?" Kairi asked.

"At least that's what blondie here thinks. And it's our best hint, so we'll go check it out" Riku said.

Kairi lightened up a little, and smiled at Roxas, then had to laugh a little at Axel (who had been standing up at the top of Roxas' seat) who fell down as Donald started up the engine.

"Stop laughing, got it memorized?" Axel said. "This ship should have some smaller seats".

"Well if you just sat still…" Roxas said and sighed.

"How old are you Axel? Cause you're acting like a ten-year old" Riku said.

Axel glared at him before climbing up into an empty chair, and then he confirmed Riku's suspicion of him being somewhat childish by asking "are we there yet?"

"We just started you idiot" Riku said.

"Can I have an ice cream?"

Riku glared at the ottsel.

"He's just teasing you. Better ignore him" Roxas said.

Axel stuck out his tongue at Axel.

"Yeah, that's very mature" Riku said and rolled his eyes. "Do we have to bring this rat along?" He asked Mickey who was trying his best not to laugh.

"Relax Riku, he's not harming anyone. And Roxas is right, by getting mad you're just encouraging him" Mickey said.

"Can I kill him?"

"No Riku."

* * *

**Usagi: and that was it, short, only a bit over two pages, sorry. BUT finally we're one step closer to figuring out where our favourite heartless is…speaking of which, where did he go?**

**Roxas: well last time I saw him he was atop the bookshelf sulking.**

**Usagi: (stares on top of the bookshelf) okay Sora, get down from there.**

**Sora: (is atop the bookshelf) No**

**Usagi: sigh Sora please! You'll fall down and hurt yourself!**

**Sora: I'm not coming down (giggles)**

**Usagi: hey… (Figures out one of her mangas are missing) DID YOU STEAL MY CHAIN OF MEMORIES-MANGA???**

**Sora: (hides CoM-manga) so what if I did?**

**Usagi: I bought that thing because I no longer have a game boy, give it back!**

**Sora: no! I want to read it too! Thanks to Namine I don't remember anything of what happened in this book, so I want to read it!**

**Usagi: (Kicks the bookshelf causing Sora to fall down, grabs the book) told you you'd fall down.**

**Sora: (moans) I hate you.**

**Daxter: Welcome to the club (gives Sora a membership card saying "I-hate-Usagi-club")**

**Usagi: I have my own hate-club? Cool.**

**Daxter: aaaand she's just about the only person who'd be happy for that.**

**Usagi: not if my readers hate me. Please review…and don't hate me…they already do (points to every single character from the Dork-series)**


	11. The World That Never Was

**Usagi: here we go again! The first chapter taking place in a kingdom hearts world since they left Destiny Islands… This chapter includes a little more humour than the earlier chapters…probably since I was reading a parody while writing… Also this story needs some humour in it before it gets to tragic.**

**Sora: it already did…**

**Usagi: and I'm glad because I got the Chain of Memories manga! Even if I haven't played that game I noticed it is a little different… but really good.**

**Zakura: are you going to write Fanfiction or advertise for manga?**

**Usagi: Fine… Well this chapter, apart from being sillier than the last (parts of it anyway), it introduces Riku and Roxas as ottsels (squeals) It's not permanent… they can change back whenever they want, but I just wanted the little fuzzies in the story.**

**Pictures of their ottsel forms can be found at DeviantArt if you're interested (links in my profile) as well as various other FF-characters as ottsels and Cloud as a rabbit:) **

**Zakura: who doesn't love rabbits? **

**Usagi: especially if it's Cloud. **

**But with no further ado: Here's chapter 11!

* * *

**

**Chapter 11**

**The World That Never Was**

The World that Never Was had never been a desired tourist magnet.

Of course there was the thing that few knew of its existence, some of those who knew it even doubted whether it _did_ exist.

It wasn't only the fact that the place lingered dangerously close to the realm of darkness, but it was pretty much deserted as well.

Only life one could find here was heartless and nobodies, the closes thing this world had seen to humans were the Organization XIII, who was much just more advanced nobodies.

Now however the organization was all gone and the nobodies appeared to be breaking havoc on the place, and the heartless seemed to have multiplied by the millions.

Either way, this was exactly where the gummi ship landed.

Riku came out first, closely followed by Roxas and the rest.

"So, where to?" Riku asked the blonde nobody.

"I don't know. My best guess is that there's somewhere in the castle" Roxas said.

Riku looked around a building at the large castle floating in the air in front of them, everything looked as it had last time he saw it, except the Kingdom Hearts was missing.

"Oh great, that thing is huge, and without a doubt filled to the brim with heartless, how are we going to find Sora in there?" he asked with a slight annoyance in his voice.

"Give Roxas a break, he's trying you know" Kairi said, she was getting sick of the boy's arguing too.

Riku sighed in defeat, and turned his attention towards the castle again.

"So how are we going to get in? Barge in through the main entrance or try sneaking in unnoticed?" he asked.

"I know of a secret entrance"

Riku looked down at the red ottsel, standing just beside him with a satisfied grin on his face.

"You do?" he asked.

"Well he did get caught several times after Xemnas found out where it was" Roxas added.

"Hey, just because Xemnas knew where it is then that doesn't mean Maleficent knows about it, got it memorized?" Axel said. "It's perfect, we only need to use it once, and the foul witch will never know."

"It's still too risky. If Maleficent DO knows about the place it would be swarming with heartless, powerful ones too" Roxas said.

"Whose side are you on anyway?" Axel asked.

"Where is this entrance?" Mickey asked.

"At the far-end of the castle, there is a ventilation shaft there and there's a crack next to it that's just big enough to get through" Roxas explained. "It takes you just inside the outer walls, not very deep into the castle though".

"A ventilation shaft? Could that bring you further in?" Riku asked.

"Probably, but it's too small" Roxas said. "Axel might get in though in his current form".

"That's right! So no one ever criticise me for my size! Got it memorised?" Axel said.

"Say that one more time and you'll be one head shorter" Riku said.

"That's not going to work. Saïx tried the same threat thousands of times" Roxas said.

"Well that's not going to work, even if we do get into the palace we'll undoubtedly be attacked, and that place is huge. How are we supposed to find one small shadow inside that place?" Mickey asked.

"You're familiar with this place right Roxas? Don't you remember what room you saw Sora in your dream?" Kairi asked.

Roxas tried to think back on the dream, he hadn't recognised the location earlier, but now it was pretty apparent it had been the Castle that Never Was he had seen through his heartless' eyes. But what room?

"I think it might be Xemnas' office, but I'm not sure" he said.

"Great, that's like in the middle of the castle" Axel said. "The heartless would either have us all tired out or killed us before we got there".

"Hey I've got an idea! Didn't you say Axel could fit into the ventilation shaft?" Donald asked.

"So? We're not sending him in there alone or he might betray us all" Riku said.

"Woah. If I had feelings I'd get really hurt by now" Axel said.

"That's not what I meant" Donald said with a smirk, and took out his staff.

The duck directed his staff at Riku, and muttered some magic formulas, suddenly a flash of light surrounded the boy, as the light disappeared, a silver-coated ottsel was sitting in Riku's place, looking somewhat confused.

"Wow Riku, you look so cute!" Kairi said.

"Okay… thanks Kairi, but how am I going to fight like this?" Riku asked.

"Don't worry, you're still as strong as before, only in a smaller size" Donald said. "You should see Sora in the pride lands; he was fighting heartless even as he had no hands."

Riku summoned the Road to Dawn-keyblade just to try.

The keyblade was now about the same size as himself, yet he realised he had no problems carrying it.

"Alright then. Let's get moving" Riku said.

* * *

Even in his new small form, Riku found getting through the ventilation shaft wasn't all that easy.

Being three in the shaft didn't make matters easier.

"Move it up front! We don't have all day, got it memorized?" Axel complained.

"Shut up pyro, it's not that damn easy crawling through this shaft you know" Riku said.

Riku and the two nobodies had decided to go into the castle alone, to avoid attracting too much attention.

Kairi had complained of course, she hated being left behind, but someone had to watch the ship. At least that's what Roxas had told her, at least it kept Kairi from following them and she wouldn't have to feel completely useless staying behind.

"How long is this shaft anyway?" Riku asked.

"I don't know. Never entered the castle from this direction" Roxas said from behind Axel, he too had been transformed into an ottsel by Donald. A blonde ottsel with darker spots on his ears and tail. "We can't be that far away though".

Riku approached an opening. "How big of a chance do you think it is that we'll get in trouble if we exit here?" he asked.

"Just as big chance as anywhere else. Just open it" Roxas replied. "I'm sick of this tight spot anyway."

"What? Are you claustrophobic?" Axel teased.

"No. But it's hard to move in here and your tail smells of burnt fur" Roxas said.

"Yeah, it catches fire sometimes. A bit annoying really" Axel said and shrugged. (**I have several pictures of ottsel-Axel with a burning tail)**

Ignoring the somewhat funny conversation behind him, Riku used his keyblade to break open the vent he had found, and the trio crawled out.

They found themselves in an empty hallway; all white of course, you'd think the main villains of the series (at least the final two parts) would paint their base in darker colours but not the Organization 13.

"Man before we're done here I'm going to get awfully sick of the colour white" Riku said.

"Welcome to the club. Axel had been helping out adding some colour on the place by setting things on fire every other week but that usually went away the next week as Demyx would usually flood the castle" Roxas said.

Riku just stared at him for a second.

"I'm guessing the Organization wasn't quite as organized as we thought then" he said eventually.

"Not really, no" Roxas said. "In fact it was pretty chaotic at times".

"I'd hate to break up the closest you two probably ever had to a friendly conversation but don't we have a heartless to find?" Axel asked.

* * *

The three ottsels made their way through the hallways unnoticed, every now and then they encountered heartless, but since they were so tiny they were usually not noticed. If they were noticed, the heartless would die before raising an alarm.

They had yet to encounter any shadows though, but Roxas assure them they were getting closer.

"Ermh Roxas, haven't we passed Xemnas' office already?" Axel asked.

"Shut up! I did say that may have been where I last saw him but he's definitely not there now" Roxas said, not stopping or even looking back at his friends (he was running first, since the other two had no idea where they were heading).

"Is he close?" Riku asked.

"How the heck should I know?" Roxas snapped.

"Yet you somehow know it's in this direction?" Riku asked.

"He's passed through this corridor, I'm sure of it. But I don't know when" Roxas said.

"Oh" Riku just said.

After running a little back and forth (Riku was starting to hate his best friend's nobody even more, but still not as much as he hated his best friend's nobody's best friend… That's Axel by the way for you guys who didn't figure that out) for a few minutes, the trio found themselves in a big room (**and no, I don't know what it's called. Just a random big room with nothing in it…I'm sure they have one of those in the castle that never** **was**) where Roxas finally stopped.

"What now?" Riku asked.

"I… I don't know. I can't figure out where he left from here" Roxas said. "I've been following his tracks…or tracks of memory at least if you could call it that, but the trace stops here".

"Here? It's just a big white room. Where's he supposed to have gone too?" Riku said. "How hard can it be just finding one single little…"

Riku was suddenly cut of as the room was suddenly filled to the brim with heartless, appearing out of dark portals or just popping out of the ground.

"…heartless" Riku said, determined to finish his sentence.

"That's it. This castle used to belong to the nobodies, I've had it with all these blasted heartless everywhere. Got it memorized?" Axel said summoning his chakrams. "You're sure none of these are your heartless right?" he asked Roxas.

"Definitely. Let's get them" Roxas said, one keyblade in each hand.

"Good. Cause I need something to take my anger out on" Riku said.

* * *

**Usagi: do you think I'm evil ending the chapter just before a big fight like that?**

**Sora: I think you're evil but for completely other reasons.**

**Riku: yeah, me too.**

**Kairi: me three.**

**Roxas: ehm… **

**Usagi: WELL I DON'T LIKE YOU EITHER! (Sulks).**

**Zakura: yes you do. Or you wouldn't be writing this.**

**Riku: love hurts.**

**Sora: especially when you're loved by a sadistic fangirl.**

**Kairi: I'm just glad I'm female.**

**Usagi: Enough of that. The next chapter includes the long-awaited return of someone who's been dearly missed throughout this whole story.**

**Sora: who's that?**

**Usagi: -.- But rest assured that doesn't mean the story's coming to an end! **

**Sora: aw…**

**Usagi: please review!**


	12. A Shadow of his Former Self

**Usagi: FINALLY! I know a lot of people have been waiting for this moment.**

**Sora: the end?**

**Usagi: no**

**Sora: (groan)**

**Roxas: hurray!**

**Sora: traitor...**

**Usagi: Originally I didn't plan on letting Sora return until the end, but then I fell in love with the charming little shadow and wanted to add it into the fic, a bit more than just a short appearance at the end… So I brought him in sooner. I don't know for how much longer the fic will go on, in fact I haven't got a single clue on what to do next either… Only a few bits and pieces planned out and the ending is sort of planned out but still… yeah…**

**Just don't expect Shadow-Sora to be the same in the fic as he is in this authors note…**

**Roxas: hurray!**

**Sora: (puts a gun on Usagi's head)**

**CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow: that's mine mate!**

**Usagi: …cause he's not… Sora was already an exceptional heartless the first time being that he kept his feelings and memories, but that was only for a short period, also add the fact Roxas mentioned in chapter two, Sora has no memories of his former self.**

**Sora: you're evil! **

**Jack: (has taken his gun back) hey! You stole it from me mate!**

**Sora: I wasn't talking about you…**

**Roxas: hurray! **

**Riku: shut up! (Knocks Roxas with the Way to Dawn)**

**Roxas: (groans)

* * *

**

**Chapter 12**

**A Shadow of His Former Self**

It seemed as if the flow of heartless never stopped.

Even though they were just as strong in their ottsel-forms, Riku and Roxas had changed back to humans again (or as human as Roxas gets really) in order to defeat the monsters.

"Okay, that's enough" said a new all too familiar voice.

The heartless stopped attacking and moved out of the way, as Pete, or Pete's nobody entered the room.

"You've got a lot of nerve coming all the way here, does this mean you've changed your minds and want to join us?" Pete asked.

"Get real fatass" Riku said.

"I'm not fat, just big-boned" Pete said, trying to sound insulted. "But if you don't want to join us I'm afraid we're going to have to kill you. ATTACK!" he yelled and the heartless charged at the trio again.

Riku was starting to get tired of being attacked all the time, and suddenly (out of pure instinct) shouted at the heartless "that's enough!"

As on cue all the heartless suddenly stopped dead in their tracks, it was hard to tell who in the room got more surprised, Pete, Axel, Roxas or Riku himself.

Roxas and Axel just stared at Riku, who looked just as confused as they did.

"Ehm… turn around" he said to the heartless, they obeyed and turned to face Pete.

"Attack" Riku said with a smirk.

"No wait! I'm the boss around here!" Pete said and ran of as all the heartless charged at him.

"Wow. Never thought I could still do that" Riku said.

"Do what? What the heck just happened?" Axel asked.

"Well… Maleficent _did_ give me the power to control the heartless at once point, but I never thought I could still do it" Riku said.

"So you've had this for a long time? Did you know about this Rox…where'd he go?" Axel said, and started to look around in the room only to see his friend in one of the corners.

"Uhm… Looks like one of the heartless stayed behind" Roxas said.

Axel came up to inspect, and saw nothing but a black spot moving around on the floor.

"Don't worry. I'll get it" Axel said pulling out his chakrams, and threw one at the floor.

The chakrams missed the moving spot by an inch and the shadow quickly ran away, however as Axel was about to chase it Roxas grabbed his tail. "No wait, don't kill it."

He turned to Riku who was still standing in the middle of the room. "Can you call that one back?" he asked.

"Er… that one?" Riku asked. "I'm not sure… It's been a while since I did this".

He snapped his fingers and all of a sudden a shadow-heartless popped out of the floor before him, looking around and moving its antennas, as if it was looking for something.

"Is that the one?" Riku asked.

Roxas couldn't resist smirking at Riku.

"Geez Riku, can't you even recognise your best friend?" he asked.

* * *

"Why aren't they back yet? What if something's gone wrong?"

"Relax Kairi. They've only been gone for an hour. Getting through that castle takes time you know" Jiminy the cricket said. **(If he hasn't been mentioned before… he's always been there, he's just too small to get noticed).**

"I know that but what if they need help?" Kairi said.

"Riku and Roxas can look after themselves, and I'm sure Axel can too" Mickey said. "They'll be back before you know it".

"Yeah. I guess you're right" Kairi said and sighed. "I'm just getting so damn bored of being left behind all the time."

Mickey couldn't help but laugh. The princess wasn't worried at all, just bored! Well who could blame her anyway? No heartless tried to sneak up to the ship. Occasionally they spotted a few nobodies, but quickly realised they wouldn't attack unless provoked.

Donald and Goofy just seemed happy with a break, and had decided to take a nap, how they could sleep at a time like this was beyond Kairi's understanding.

"I just hope they won't start fighting amongst each other" Kairi said, trying to get a conversation going. "Riku's not all too fond of the nobodies."

"I'm sure they'll be alright. Even so Axel and Roxas would be able to stop Riku if he tried anything" Mickey said.

"Do you think they'll be able to find Sora's heartless?" Kairi asked.

"Well… we just got to wait and see" Mickey said.

Donald yawned and got up. "How am I supposed to be able to sleep when you guys keep talking?" he asked.

"You should be standing guard. It's a dangerous world we're in you know" Kairi said.

"Aw come on. We've been here nearly an hour and no heartless has ever tried to…whoa!"

Donald was cut of as a heartless did in fact enter the camp, not exactly a big threat, just a shadow that stumbled its way into the alley where the gummi ship had parked.

"Just one?" Mickey said confused.

"Don't worry friends. I'll take care of this one" Donald said raising his staff.

"No stop!" said another voice.

Roxas, Riku and Axel (who sat on Roxas' head really) ran into the alley.

"You're back!" Kairi said happily.

"So… then this heartless must be…" Donald said sounding unsure.

"Afraid so" Roxas said.

Kairi bent down to look at the heartless.

"Sora" she said, and reached her hand out to the shadow.

The heartless however didn't seem very keen on touching her, it quickly turned and ran to hide behind Roxas.

"He doesn't seem to remember anything, not even his friends" Riku said. "Yet he seems to recognise Roxas, probably because they're technically the same person".

"So…he's forgotten everything?" Kairi asked.

"Seems like it" Riku said. "He was able to hold on to his feelings and most of his memories the first time he turned heartless but now… maybe he's just been a heartless for too long, there's just nothing there."

Looking somewhat desperate, Kairi turned to Roxas who was having his hands full of calming down his other, who was currently freaking out.

"Can't you do anything?" she asked.

"If I could I would have done it ages ago. But the fact is a heartless and a nobody, despite being two halves of the same person, can't just fuse any time they want" Roxas explained.  
"But you did... as well as Namine and I" Kairi said.

"Certainly. But you weren't heartless. Sora's lost his heart, thanks to you he managed to get it back last time but now it was stolen by that other heartless, Pete's heartless, who died" Roxas said. "Who knows where the heart went to?"

"Back to Kingdom Hearts I guess" Riku said, gazing up at the faint pink lines that were once the Kingdom Hearts. "Then again who knows how that thing works?"

"I'd say we go back to our original plan. We'll take the heartless back to Yen Sid. He'll know what to do" Mickey said.

"So… what are we going to do about the heartless?" Donald asked.

"What are you talking about Donald? He's coming with us of course" Riku said.

The duck didn't seem too happy about the answer, and glared at the shadow who was hiding behind Roxas' feet.

"We can't take it with us! It's a heartless!" Donald said. "They're vicious monsters!"

"Aw come on Donald. That's Sora we're talking about" Goofy said.

"Sora or not, we can't be safe with that thing around. You know what heartless do for a living!" Donald said. "Especially if he doesn't have any memories of whom or what he once was."

Riku was about to answer back, probably something rather rude, but figured soon enough the duck was right. Heartless relied heavily on their instincts, and about the strongest instinct they had was about ripping people's hearts out.

Right now Sora was pretty calm, not to mention rather scared which could be a cause of being on its own along with a bunch of people and four of these carried keyblades, but how would he become at night when no one was watching?

They couldn't exactly place him in a cage or anything, since shadows could usually make their way through locked doors and whatnot by sneaking around like little black spots at the floor.

"Well there's no way we're leaving him behind!" Kairi said.

Roxas stared at the little creature at his feet. He could hardly believe such a pathetic creature could be his heartless, but then again Sora had always been (even though Roxas hated to use DiZ's words) too kind for his own good. There was no way the darkness in his heart would be enough to create a menacing heartless.** (This leads to the explanation to Roxas' question in an earlier chapter. This is why I think Sora turned into a shadow and not a stronger heartless).**

This heartless seemed even more pathetic than any other shadow Roxas had known, but then again he had never encountered a single shadow, faced up against three keyblade-wielders. If only he could remember… Wait a second.

"Of course!" Roxas said, slapping himself on the face for not thinking of this any sooner. "The reason Sora's acting like this is because he doesn't remember who we are".

"Well yes, so we figured" Riku said. He had absolutely no patience when it came to Roxas.

Roxas didn't even bother answering Riku, but instead he turned to Kairi.

"Namine?" he said.

A new girl materialized in the air next to Kairi. She looked very similar to Kairi herself, yet her hair was blonde, she wore a white dress and was, quite noticeably, nearly transparent.

It was Kairi's nobody, Namine, for those of you who haven't played CoM or KH2.

"Let me guess, you want to know if I can restore Sora's memories right?" Namine asked.

"Just enough so he won't run away or hurt anyone, can you do that?" Roxas asked.

"Well of course. Getting all his memories would take a long time but I can make him remember who his friends are, especially since those memories have all been transferred to you" Namine said smiling.

She walked up to Sora, who was unable to escape as Roxas was holding on to his antenna.

"It's okay Sora" she said to the struggling heartless.

Namine reached out to touch the heartless, but seeing as she was transparent her hand went straight through.

Sora struggled to get free from his nobody's grip, but soon calmed down and started to look around with a somewhat confused look (at least that's what his friends thought; none of them really knew how you could tell that a shadow was confused)

"There, he should remember you guys now" Namine said.

As a response, Sora broke free of Roxas' grip and ran straight into the arms of Kairi.

"Thanks Namine" Kairi said.

"Anytime" Namine said and smiled again before disappearing back into Kairi.

"Great. Can we go now or do any more nobodies want to make a cameo?" Riku asked.

"I'm sure that's enough. Let's set sail for Twilight Town!" Mickey said.

* * *

**Usagi: So I got Namine in too…for a short period… she just fitted for the scene.**

**The ending to this chapter was maybe a little rushed… I just wanted to get done with it! Either way it's 4 pages long which is longer than my usual 3… so I hope you like it:D **

**And about Riku controlling the heartless... I know he did that in Kingdom Hearts 1 but I've never seen him do that in KH2 so it is possible he has lost that power (he lost the power to create dark portals at the end of KH2 as well so...) but I've decided to let him have it in this fic, since it fitted the situation, and it makes it easier to keep Sora close too.**

**Sora: I'm not a pet! **

**Roxas: Oh... better return this then (walks back to the pet store with a pink collar)**

**Zakura: okay! That' was all for now! Goodbye!**

**Usagi: no wait!**

**Zakura: (groan) **

**Usagi: I have been wondering whether I should add another member of Orgy XIII into the fic, both because of certain reviews and because he's insanely funny, but I've been wondering of how to do it… the nobody in question is (of course) the melodious nocturne Demyx. I've already reviewed Axel for pretty much no reason, but don't know what to do about Demyx, or whether he should even be in here.  
Demyx: please? (Does puppy eyes)**

**Sora: he can take my place.**

**Usagi: not happening buddy.  
So my question to you is: Should I give Demyx a part in the fic? And do you have a suggestion as to how or where they should meet him? And what do you think of this chapter?**

**Please send answers to the questions above in a review (the last one is pretty obvious) PLEASE REVIEW!**


	13. Nobody in wolffur

**Usagi: wow, I've been starting to write a lot lately. When I first joined Fanfiction each chapter I wrote appeared to be around 2-3 pages long. This one's 4 and the latest chapter of Dork Period got one line over at page 5. **

**Usually if the chapters get a lot more than 3-4 pages I cut them of, but this time I decided not to. Might as well start writing longer chapters so you'll get more to read:) **

**Sora: and then maybe this fic will be finished sooner.**

**Usagi: are you just going to sit there whining through the whole fic?**

**Sora: that was the plan.**

**Usagi: okay… This chapter's title is based on the saying about wolves in sheep-clothing, not sure how the saying goes in English but it's usually about someone not being who they claim to be. But that doesn't necessarily mean the person here is untrustworthy, in fact I mean the title quite literally…**

**As you may have guessed another nobody is introduced in this chapter, unfortunately it's not Demyx, he just didn't fit into this scene, but I've decided to revive most, if not all the members of the Organization. Though I don't they will all join our heroes (then the gummi ship would get rather full:p) **

**Other than that I had some fun with Sora's heartless in this chapter.**

**Sora: (glare).**

**Usagi: I'm sure shadows are able to eat other stuff than just hearts of other people…so I gave him some ice cream. If you want to see pictures of Sora eating ice cream just go to my DeviantArt-gallery, I have several pictures there, heck it's even in my avatar:p**

**So with no further ado: here's chapter 13

* * *

**

**Chapter 13**

**Nobody in Wolf-fur**

"Are there any more distractions now or can we finally get moving towards Twilight Town?" Donald asked as the gummi ship took of.

He turned around just in time to see Roxas trying to pull Sora out of the fridge.

"He's hungry" the nobody explained. "Who knew heartless loved sea salt ice cream that much… they don't eat the wrappings!" Roxas pulled out the ice cream package out of the heartless' mouth and unwrapped it before giving it back.

"Distractions are plentiful, but let's just get moving anyway" Riku said. "I have a feeling this is going to be a long trip".

"You're not supposed to eat the stick you dumb shadow!" Roxas yelled from behind him.

Donald sighed.

"Get that heartless strapped up somewhere before we exit the atmosphere or he would surely crash into the wall" he said.

Roxas picked up the heartless, who coughed up the stick from the ice cream, and sat down at the nearest seat, with Sora still on his lap.

It was probably the first time since leaving Destiny Islands that the team were able to leave a world without anyone falling. Even Axel had remembered to at least sit on one of the seats, even though they were far too big for him, at least it was better than standing on top of one.

Since Twilight Town as pretty much right next to the World That Never Was it didn't take long before the gummi ship pulled up next to Yen Sid's tower.

Mickey was the first to exit the ship.

"It sure feels good to be back here" he said. "I haven't visited my old teacher in ages".

"Well let's just hope he's home" Donald said, he walked past his king towards the door to Yen Sid's tower, but then he suddenly fell back, as five soldier heartless suddenly materialized in the air in front of them.

"What the?" the duck said in surprise.

"More heartless? What are they doing here?" Riku said and pulled his keyblade.

"Causing problems as usual, I hope Yen Sid isn't hurt" Mickey said.

Riku killed one of the heartless and several more appeared. "Maybe you should go inside your majesty, we'll handle these guys out here" he said.

"Donald and I will go with you" Goofy said. "That is unless you need us out here."

"Just go. We'll be fine" Roxas said, he pulled out the oathkeeper and oblivion, and Sora crawled up on his head, knowing to well he was no match against the stronger soldiers.

Mickey, Donald and Goofy wasted no time running into the tower, as Riku, Roxas, Kairi and Axel readied their weapons to kill the heartless outside, also keeping them from getting into the tower.

"Wouldn't it be nice to just visit ONE world without being attacked by heartless?" Roxas asked.

"Now that would be pretty boring wouldn't it? Got it memorized?" Axel said with a smirk.

Mickey, Donald and Goofy ran up the staircases as fast as they could, knocking down various types of heartless as they went.

"Why are there so many heartless in here now?" Donald asked.

"We don't have time to ponder about that now, we have to find Yen Sid" Mickey said.

The mouse jumped through the last portal, and entered the door into Yen Sid's office.

There was no one there.

"Yen Sid? Are you here?" Mickey asked, sounding anxious.

Donald and Goofy entered and Goofy looked into the next room.

"Flora? Fauna? Merryweather? Are you there ladies?" he asked.

But the fairies did not answer, neither did anyone else.

The wizard's books were scattered all over the floor, and it looked as though there had been a fight recently, yet there were no heartless in the room.

"Wonder what happened in here?" Mickey said.

"You might as well leave, the old man ain't here anymore" said a new voice.

The trio turned around to find a black and white wolf standing in the door, with an eye patch over his eye.

"Who are you?" Mickey asked, pointing his keyblade towards the newcomer.

"Hey, relax dudes. I'm not your enemy, at least not at the moment" the wolf said, taking a step back.

Just then Donald recognised the animal.

"Hey! You're one of those organization-guys" he said. "I thought we'd finished you".

"Yes and no. I'm still here aren't I?" the wolf said. "The name's Xigbar. I was nr II in the organization but now they're gone, so I guess I'm just Xigbar for now".

"Actually we met one of your old friends in another world. Axel is outside right now" Goofy said.

"I know, I already caught his smell. I'm a wolf after all" Xigbar said. "Now I know how Zexion sees the world".

"Who's Zexion?"  
"Never mind."

"Enough of that! Where's Yen Sid?" Mickey asked.

"Hm? Is that the wizard living in this tower? I'm not sure but I saw a train leaving here a few hours ago, soon after the heartless appeared" Xigbar said. "I didn't have anything better to do so I went inside to check out the house. I'm pretty sick of sleeping outdoors anyway. If only I had been reborn as a dog and not a wolf maybe I could move in with some family down in Twilight Town but noooo. All they do is chase me away" he added trying to look sad.

"Aw… poor guy" Goofy said.  
"Don't feel sorry for him. He's a nobody, he doesn't have feelings" Donald warned him. "He's just trying to trick us".

"He's right. How do we know you're not lying?" Mickey asked, still pointing his keyblade towards the wolf.

"Look, if I wanted to kill you I would have done so instantly. Just because I'm slightly smaller than usual does not mean I don't still have my powers" Xigbar said.

"So you're suggesting we're just going to trust you just like that? What do you want from us anyway?" Mickey asked.

"Fine, I guess there's no danger telling you. I'm just bored as hell" Xigbar said. "It's just a wild guess, but considering Axel has been able to return from the "dead" then maybe the other organization members have too. If I joined you guys maybe I'd have a chance of finding them. And don't give me that look; I've long since given up on the Kingdom Hearts so I'm not going to bother your friend Sora about that".

Mickey looked down at the mention of Sora's name; Yen Sid was the best chance he got of getting his heart back, but now…

"Dude, what's the matter?" Xigbar asked.

"About Sora…something's happened" Mickey said.

Before he had time to say more, a loud crash was heard and the tower started collapsing.

"The tower is collapsing your majesty! We have to get out of here!" Donald yelled and started moving for the door.

"Fool! You'll never make it" Xigbar said, opening a black portal. "In here, quick".

Donald was about to protest, but the tower started shaking again and it was evident it was falling apart, so all three of them jumped into the portal, followed by Xigbar, and before they knew it they were right outside, and they could see the tower falling over.

"King! Donald! Goofy! You're okay".

Riku came running up to them. "I was afraid you didn't make it….how did you get out here anyway?" he asked.

"Actually… Xigbar helped us" Mickey said, nodding towards the wolf.

Riku responded by pulling out the Road to Dawn and held it only inches away from Xigbar's head.

"Xiggy! Long time no see!"

Axel came up to them, followed by the rest.

"Glad to see I'm not the only one who was turned into a furry" the ottsel said cheerfully.

"At least I'm bigger than you. You're even smaller than the hare I had for lunch yesterday" Xigbar said.

"Hehe… good joke Xigbar" Axel said.

"Who's joking traitor?" Xigbar snarled.

"You have a keyblade inches from your brain, so if I was you I'd try to act friendlier" Riku said. "I don't really care if you eat the ottsel or not ("Hey!" Axel complained) but what I want to know is what do you want?"

"He saved our lives by opening a portal up in the tower" Mickey explained. "However, I'm still not sure if we can trust him."  
"Darnit, what do I have to do to earn some trust among you people?" Xigbar asked, backing away from the Road to Dawn.

"You could stop coming with death-threats for start" Axel said, he had walked back to hide behind Roxas and Sora. The heartless sat right next to them.

Xigbar looked up as he noticed Roxas for the first time.

"Nr XIII. I never expected to see you here" he said. "Then again the mouse-king did mention something had happened to you." He looked at the heartless sitting by Roxas' feet. "I'm guessing that shadow is your other half? Funny. I always expected Sora's heartless to be bigger, not just a puny shadow."

The heartless snarled at him.

"Interesting. It even understands human language. Maybe it is special after all" Xigbar said. "Hey, does it know any tricks?"  
"Knock it of. This is Sora you're talking about" Roxas said.

"Sora's heartless" Xigbar added. "Those things are even dumber than a dog. Heartless are made up by nothing but the darkness in people's hearts, body and mind passes to the nobodies, I would have expected you to know that".

"Certainly some heartless are dumb as bread, but don't you forget there were two who kept their personalities even after turning heartless" Axel said. "You were Ansem's second assistant, so surely you remember Xeanort?"

"Oh yes, the superior's heartless" Xigbar said. "I figured as much, it requires a strong will to create a nobody, and even a stronger one to have a heartless **and** a nobody with the ability to think for themselves. I underestimated the keyblade's chosen one once before but that won't happen again".

He started approaching Sora, but before he could get close to him Riku snatched the heartless and held him out of reach.

"Listen, if you want to hang with us there is one thing I want clear. You're not getting anywhere near Sora, or you'll figure out the Kingdom Key isn't the only keyblade you need to watch out for" Riku said.

"Relax dude, I only wanted to look at it" Xigbar said. "A heartless that understands human language, other than stuff it's ordered to do, that's pretty remarkable."

Riku looked from Xigbar to the heartless in his hands.

He hadn't really thought about the fact that Sora seemed to understand speech, with the heartless he met at Maleficent's castle he just took it for granted they would do as he told them to, but never really thought about if they actually understood him in any other situation.

"How come the heartless are able to obey the orders given to them if the don't even understand human language?" he asked.

"That's a little hard to explain" Xigbar said. "But the thing is most heartless understand orders given to them by those who have strong connections to the darkness. However try to talk regularly or like me, plain out insult them and they won't react. Sora and Xeanort are the only heartless I know to maintain at least some of their original personalities. But judging by your friend here, he doesn't have much. The big question is how much?"

"Why do you care?"

"I'm a scientist. Or was… I was just curious" Xigbar said. "If we find out just how much of Sora is in the heartless and what's been transferred to Roxas, maybe we can figure out a way to get them back together".

"What do you get out of this? I can hardly believe a nobody, even less a member of Organization XIII would help someone out of pure kindness" Riku said.

"The Organization was created so that we could get our hearts back, if Roxas gets his heart back, maybe we could find a way to regain ours as well" Xigbar said. "In the end that's what we all want, isn't it VII and XIII?"

"I guess…" Roxas said.

"It would be nice to have a heart again…" Axel said.

Riku sighed and let Sora down to the ground, however the heartless wasn't very keen on staying close to Xigbar so he climbed back up again.

"Okay, you can stay for a short while at least" Riku said. "But if you try anything consider your nonexistent life over".

"Can I hurt Axel?" Xigbar asked.

Riku looked like he was about to say yes, but noticed Roxas and Kairi were glaring at him, so he replied "no".

"Bummer."

* * *

**Usagi: Once again there is a lot of talking in this chapter… but at least I got it done.**

**Xigbar: sure you don't want to teach your heartless some tricks?**

**Roxas: …Any suggestions.**

**Sora: oh screw both of you!**

**Usagi: so if anyone wonders what happened to Yen Sid and the fairies…I don't know… he escaped when the heartless arrived so they're probably okay. I never really wanted him into the fic anyway… he might be able to come up with a SOLUTION! And we can't have that, can we?**

**Zakura: nope.**

**Sasuke: Definitely not.**

**Sora: SAVE ME!**

**Tempus: I want ice cream too…**

**Usagi: (gives ice cream to the hamster and stuffs one into Sora's mouth as well to shut him up.) That was all the fun we had for you today. Please review and look out for the next update, and if you have any suggestions on what organization members you'd want the gang to meet and how just tell;) **


	14. Meeting Old Friends

**Usagi: Here we are with another exiting…I hope…instalment of Lost in Darkness. In a new world, and with new characters (well not new, but new to this story).**

**Sasuke: (Singing) it's a whole new world we live in!**

**Zakura: stop singing Pokèmon you idiot!**

**Sasuke: but I like that song…**

**Usagi: (singing). When you walk away, you won't hear me say PLEASE! OH BABY. DON'T GO!**

**Zakura: shut the hell up! Why is everyone singing today?**

**Usagi: (ignores rabbit) Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight! It's hard to let it go!**

**Sora: just start already!

* * *

**

**Chapter 14**

**Meeting Old Friends**

"Does anyone have a good suggestion on where to go next or shall we do as we always did? Visit random worlds and hope we find out anything?" Donald asked.

"The last one sounds fine to me" Roxas said.

"Hey! How about we go visit Leon and the gang?" Kairi asked.

"Alright. It's not like we've got anything better to do" Donald sighed. "Next stop: Radiant Garden".

The gummi ship took of (Xigbar breaking their no-fall streak by crashing into the back wall) and started moving towards Radiant Garden.

Ironically, this was the same place where Sora had transformed into a heartless for the first time, only back then the place was known as "Hollow Bastion".

As soon as they had landed they made their way towards Merlin's house, there they met a few of their old friends, Merlin (well duh…) Leon, Cid, Aerith and Yuffie where there.

The happy reunion was short though, as the group explained why they had to leave in the first place, they told the whole story from what happened to Sora to finding the Twilight Tower deserted.

"Oh this is so not good" Merlin said. "I wished I could help you guys but I'm afraid I know little about these things. Yen Sid was our best hope, but who knows where he's gone to."

"I wouldn't even believe it if I hadn't seen this" Yuffie said, looking at the small heartless in front of her. "He's not going to attack or anything does he?"  
"No. Namine made sure of that. He won't attack any of his friends" Riku said.

"Good. He's kind of cute though" Yuffie said and petted Sora on the head. "Hey Leon? Think we should get ourselves a pet shadow?"  
"You've got to be kidding me" Leon said, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course I'm kidding dummy" Yuffie said. "Don't worry Sora; we'll get you back to normal again before you know it".

Sora gave of a short squeaking noise.

"Uhm… was there something I did?" Yuffie asked.

"He's hungry again" Roxas sighed.

"Can you read his mind or anything?" Xigbar asked.

"Pretty much (not that there's a lot in there to read). You've never been around your own heartless a lot have you?" Roxas asked.

"So… what does heartless eat anyway?" Aerith asked.

"I know, you should know. And we all know he's not getting _that_" Roxas said. "I usually just give him ice cream or other random food items but make sure to remove the wrappings or he will eat them".

"No problem! I'll fix up a dish he'll love!" Cid said and ran into the kitchen.

After a few minutes, he came back with a bowl full of…something.

"What is that? It looks like you just took everything in the fridge and put it in a bowl" Riku said.

"Yup. Want some?" Cid asked.

Riku looked like he was about to throw up.

"I think I'll pass" he said.

"I'll try some" Kairi said.

"Finally, someone who understands a good chef. Dinner's ready people" Cid said.

The food wasn't actually that bad, but it still didn't get Riku's appetite back, especially not when Sora threw himself at the plate, swallowing it all in once and then started chewing on the plate before Roxas took it out of his mouth and gave him refills.

"Sure you don't want any? You're looking a little pale" Cid asked Riku.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I had a big breakfast" Riku said. "I'm just going for a short walk if you don't mind."

He left the table and tried not to step at Sora doing so. Obviously there must have been some kind of candy in the fridge or anything with sugar in it because the heartless had gotten hyperactive and occasionally started running around on the floor, only stopping to eat some more. (Xigbar noted this was the first time he'd ever seen a heartless get hyperactive).

Riku stepped outside into the streets of Radiant Garden.

The Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee (consisting mostly of Leon and his gang) had done a good job at rebuilding the city.

In just a little over a year, it had gone from a gloomy dark place to a flourishing city.

Many of the people who had been forced to leave when the heartless took over had returned as well.

Quite hard to think that the six original members of Organization XIII (yet alone Xehanort, whom Riku was far too familiar with) came from this city, thought it did explain a bit as they were the ones who caused it's downfall in the first place.

He stopped for a while as he thought about the six, Ansem's former assistants.

Didn't Xigbar mention something about the other organization members being resurrected as well? Could one of them be in…?

But he shook the thought of, he had no idea where Axel came from but seeing as Xigbar was one of the six, that meant he was also from Radiant Garden, yet they had found him in Twilight Town, the place most nobodies were born after loosing their hearts.

But it wouldn't hurt to look would it?  
He walked out of the alley where Merlin was living and made his way towards the more crowded areas of the city. If anything he might be able to actually find some real food in the stores.

He walked up to a small food store and bought a hot dog **(Random food choice. I don't really care what he eats; it has no relevance to the story whatsoever)**.

"Hey, what do you think Cid would say if he saw you chose a hot dog over his food?"

Riku turned around and saw Kairi coming towards him, Sora behind her, nibbling on something Riku hoped was an ice cream stick.

"I take my chances" he said. "I'm not eating that if it was the last dish in Radiant Garden."

"It wasn't that bad. It was just… a different way of mixing various food items" Kairi said. "Actually it was quite good, Sora liked it too".

"Sora's swallowing his ice cream stick".

"Oh darn" Kairi said and hurried to pull the half-eaten stick out of his mouth. "I wished Namine would help him remember what's food or not."

"She's your nobody. Why don't you just ask?" Riku asked.

"She thinks it's cute" Kairi shrugged. "Besides she keeps reminding me tempering with people's memories are risky business. And heartless don't generally have a lot of room for them either…"

"But it seems to have a big stomach" Riku pointed out. "Where are Roxas and the other nobodies? Still back at Merlin's house?"

"No. They wanted to go see if any of their old comrades were in town. Leon went with them too" Kairi said.

Riku sighed, took another piece of his hot dog before giving the rest to Sora.

"Well maybe we should go join them. Who knows what trouble three nobodies could cause, even with Leon with them?"

"You still don't trust them?"

"Roxas I can accept, but Axel and Xigbar aren't exactly known to stay low" Riku said.

* * *

"So exactly what are we supposed to be looking for?" Axel asked.

"I don't know… puddles, cards, strange damages to random walls. Anything that looks familiar" Xigbar said, still keeping his nose down to the ground. "Wow, I still can't get used to this awesome sense of smell".

"I can't get used to the fact that you look like a total idiot with your nose down like that" Axel muttered.

Xigbar quickly turned around and growled at the ottsel. "My hearing is far better too, just so you know" he said.

"I'm curious, exactly how are you supposed to carry your guns around when you don't have hands?" Axel said.

"Care to find out?" Xigbar asked.

"Guys, stop fighting. You're only drawing unwanted attention to yourself" Leon said and looked nervously at the people around them, who started giving them strange looks.

"I thought I heard arguing".

Riku, Kairi and Sora came up to the foursome, Axel and Xigbar were still to busy glaring at each other to notice.

"Found anything?" Riku asked.

"Well we found it that Xigbar looks like an idiot when he's searching for someone" Axel said.

"Shut up nr VIII. As a matter of fact I do smell something familiar. Don't know who it is yet only it smells not quite human and not quite animal..." Xigbar said.

"Do humans and nobodies have different smells?" Riku asked.

"Yup. Kind of hard to explain, but this one's definitely a nobody" Xigbar said and put his nose down to the ground again. "And… it's coming right this way".

He looked up just in time to see a flash of silvery fuzz come straight towards him.

"Out of the way!" the fuzzball yelled before disappearing into a back alley.

"O…k?" Roxas said.

"Now THIS I go to see" Axel said grinning, and ran into the alley.

As the gang went into the back alley, they didn't see the nobody at first, until they noticed a silver cat-tail with a white tip, sticking out of a nearby trash can.

"Hey dude. You can come out now." Xigbar said.

"I am NOT coming" the cat said before pulling its tail back into the trash can, the lid opened slightly, and a pair of blue eyes peered nervously over at the street, just as a young girl ran past.

"Fluffy? Fluffy! Where are you boy?" the girl asked, before moving on.

As soon as the girl was out of sight, Axel turned back to the trash-can with a wide smirk on his face.

"What's this? Have you gotten a new girlfriend Zexion?" he asked.

"Is that one of your friends?" Kairi asked.

"Nah… "Friend" might not be the right word. His name's Zexion. I recognize that voice any day" Axel said. "Hey! The girl is gone, now come out!"

"I won't. Just leave me alone" Zexion snapped.

However it wasn't up to him, Roxas kicked the trash can over, and a small silver coated cat fell out. The tip of his tail and feet where white to very bright blue, so was his stomach and face, his ears were darker in colour.

But the most noticeable thing was the pink collar…not to mention the ribbon (also pink) that he had on his head to prevent the fur from falling over his right eye.

Within five seconds, both Axel and Xigbar broke out in laughter.

Riku and Roxas snickered a little too; even Leon was having problems holding back his laugh.

"Hey shut up! I wasn't the one who put these things on" Zexion said and pulled the ribbon out of his hair, the collar however turned harder to take of for someone with no hands.

"Hey. Knock it of boys" Kairi said and helped take the collar of. "If it helps, I thought you looked cute in that".

"It does not and who are you?" Zexion asked. "You smell like someone I know…"

"Oh right. Sorry. My name is Kairi; I'm a friend of Roxas" Kairi said.

"Well he's always had a strange taste in friends so forgive me if that's not really reassuring" Zexion said calmly, before looking at the other members of the party. "And Riku. I already caught your smell form a mile away, but never expected to see you with those three" he said directing a paw towards the still snickering nobodies+ Sora who had decided he wanted to join in the fun, though it was doubtful the heartless knew what they were laughing of, he had just found a new hobby, copying Roxas.

"I've been asking myself the same question sometimes" Riku said. "It's kind of a long story."

"Perhaps we should just go back to Merlin's house then we can explain everything for little Fluffy" Axel said.

"Don't _ever_ call me that again" Zexion snapped.

* * *

**Usagi: okay, a few explanations in hand.**

**Cid's "special dish" is from the Chain of Memories manga, I thought that was pretty funny when he threw everything in the fridge (including poor Yuffie's cake) into his dish. So I thought I'd use it in my fic too.**

**And another nobody has joined the party…still not Demyx…but I can't help it! I had the idea for Zexion for a few days time and had to add it in. If he's acting a little out of character in this chapter it's because he's a little stressed out for having to live with a little girl with an obsession for pink for who knows how long… There's a picture of his kitten-form on DeviantArt if you want to see it ;)**

**Zexion: you don't. Trust me.**

**Usagi: Aw come on Zexy. You're cute (snuggles Zexion).**

**Usagi: and that was all I could think of saying. I'm tired as hell. Good night and please review.**


	15. Plotting and Annoying Brats

**Usagi: So we're back again. This chapter introduces a new very important character to the fic.**

**Zexion: You've got to be kidding me.**

**Usagi: fine… so the newest character in this fic (not counting Maleficent) isn't important at all and will most likely only appear in this chapter. But more on her later.**

**On with the story:

* * *

**

**Chapter 15**

**Plotting and Annoying Brats**

Maleficent was not happy.

That being said, she wasn't really mad either, since she no longer had the ability to feel, but if she was, she would be steaming.

Not only had those blasted keybladers have the guts to walk right into her castle and out, but they had also stolen her most priced heartless.

Not that Sora's heartless was good for anything; in fact he was even weaker than your average shadow. That boy was truly too nice for his own good.

It had been a simple act of revenge.

Sora had foiled her plans one too many times in the past, the only good thing he ever did was dispose of that wretched Organization, so she could finally take control of their castle.

"I can't believe you just let them snatch it!" the witch snarled at her second-in command.

"I'm sorry your highness. But that boy you once took in managed to regain control over the heartless! I had no chance" Pete said stuttering.

"Oh spare me" Maleficent said, rolling her eyes.

"Whatever did you need that shadow for anyway? It was no special from other heartless" Pete asked.

"Because that shadow was the heartless of the keyblade master! Surely with such little darkness in his heart the shadow itself is no use, but we could have used it to lure out the nobody, he's the most powerful one, especially as long as we have the heartless" Maleficent said evilly.

"What do you mean?" Pete asked.

Maleficent stood up from her chair, and walked over to the bookshelf in her new office, examining the books.

"Heartless and nobodies are two halves of the same person, they cannot get whole on their own, and therefore they will also never reach their full powers as long as they are separate" she explained. "Surely this "Nr XIII" was a powerful nobody, but with his heartless around, even if they aren't able to fuse, his powers will rise drastically".

"Well even if you did get him here with the heartless, how can you be sure he would just betray his friends and join you?" Pete asked.

"Friends?" Maleficent snorted. "Nobodies don't have friends. In case you've forgotten you're one too now. We have no feelings, therefore no feeling of friendship. Whatever that boy "feels" for his so-called friends are only made-up from memories of his past self."

"And you honestly thing he'll join **you?**"

Maleficent turned around and glared at Pete.

"Hey! I didn't say that" Pete said quickly.

"No. I did" said a new voice.

A dark portal appeared in front of Pete and Maleficent, who gasped in unison.

"It can't be…" the witch said, before all went black.

* * *

Back at Merlin's house, the gang was finished explaining to Zexion what had happened since his absence. 

He didn't seem too upset by hearing about the Organization's downfall.

"It was bound to happen some day. What kind of leader would put a guy like Marluxia in charge of a castle anyway? That mission was a total failure from the start, and it didn't get any better it seems" the cat said and cast an ugly glare at Axel.

"Hey, don't look at me. If it hadn't been for me Marluxia may have succeeded in his scheming and taken over the Organization" Axel said.

"One thing sure hasn't changed" Zexion said and rolled his eyes. "You might be a lot smaller than before Axel but you're still just as dumb".

"Okay, knock it of" Roxas said and grabbed Axel's tail before he could charge at Zexion.

Ignoring the ottsel, Zexion turned his attention to the heartless that was sleeping on the floor.

"So exactly what are you going to do with that heartless?" he asked.

"That heartless is staying with us until further notice. If you have a problem with that we'll just take you back to your "owner", I'm sure she misses you" Riku said.

"Oh please don't!" Zexion said. "I am NEVER going back to that brat again".

"Come to think of it, WHY did you stay with her anyway? You're a master of illusions; couldn't you just chase her away?" Axel asked.

"I tried, but that kid's got such a big fantasy NOTHING scares… oh crap" Zexion started before he suddenly ran and hid under Merlin's bed.

Everyone else in the room (meaning Axel, Roxas, Xigbar, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Jiminy, Merlin, Leon, Cid, Aerith, Yuffie and even Sora) stared at the cat with a puzzled expression before they heard knocking.

"Don't open!" Zexion said from under the bed.

Merlin sighed, but opened the door.

Outside stood a small girl, probably 5 or 6 years old.

"HI!" she said to the wizard.

"Er… hello little girl. What do you want?" Merlin asked.

"My name's Annie Tarb Ginnoyan. I'm looking for my kitty; he was in my room but then someone broke the window and he got startled and ran out through the hole. I'm so worried about him. He's grey and white with a pink collar on!" the girl said and stared at Merlin with the biggest puppy-eyes imaginable.

Merlin glanced over at the bed where Zexion was completely invisible in the shadows.

"No… sorry. We haven't seen your cat" he said.

"Aw…" Annie said sadly, and then she looked past Merlin in case "Fluffy" was hiding in his house without him noticing. But she didn't see any cat; instead she noticed another black thing…

"Aw. That's so cute! I wanna hug it!" she said and before Merlin had time to react she ran in and Sora quickly hid under the bed.

"I don't think you should, he bites" Riku said.

"Where did you get it? I want one too!" Annie said.

"…I highly doubt it" Riku said. "As a matter of fact, if you ever see one of those things I suggest you run, fast".

"Why? It doesn't look scary" Annie said.

"Oh trust me, they are scary. Just ask your parents. I'm sure they've heard about them" Riku said. "Those things don't make good pets."

"So why do you have one?"

Silence…

"Shouldn't you get home before your mom starts to worry about you?" Riku asked.

"My mom's an angel! She watches me from heaven!" Annie said.

"Oh… sorry about that… but I bet there's still SOMEONE at your house who worries about you. So you should hurry home until..."

"So cute!"

"…Are you even listening?"

"Apparently not" Roxas sighed.

Annie had noticed Axel, who coincidentally happened to sit on top of Cid's computer for some reason.

"Nu-uh. You're not allowed to cuddle me! Got it memorized?" Axel said.  
"Hey! She talks!" Annie said. "Just like in the cartoons!"

"Darn right I talk kiddo. Now didn't Riku say anything about going home?"

"But I don't want to go home yet! I wanna play with you guys!" Annie said happily. "We could play hide and seek! You know what that is right?"

"How'bout we play "Go to your room you annoying brat?"

"That's not very nice said. My dad says you shouldn't call people things."

"I didn't call you "things". I called you an annoying brat. Now GO HOME!"

Annie turned to the others.

"He's mean" she said and pointed at the ottsel.

"Ehm. Never mind him. How about we take you home okay?" Kairi said and took the girl's hand. "You show the way and if we find your kitty…" "His name's Fluffy!" "…Right. If we find Fluffy we'll come by your house with him okay."

"Hey! I could come back tomorrow. Then we can play!" Annie said to the ottsel on the computer.

"That's a good idea. Come on now" Kairi said and led the girl out the door.

As soon as the two girls had left, Axel jumped down from the computer and Sora and Zexion crawled out from under the bed.  
"Fine Zexion, you're right. That girl IS deadly" Axel said. "And I sure as hell am not going to stick around and wait for her return".

Riku chuckled. "Fine. I guess there's no reason for us to stick around. First thing in the morning we'll go back to the gummi ship."

**Usagi: annoying enough for you?**

**Fine. Here's some info on little Annie.**

**She was originally a character in another fanfic I wrote that was deleted because of writer's block. She loves animals over everything, and will bring home almost any animal she finds. Her favourite pet name appears to be "Fluffy", as she gives that name to not only Zexion, but also Daxter in the other fic (also believing he's a girl. As she also does to Axel…)**

**Her middle name and last name was suggested by rilaveke, if you can figure out what they mean (hint, move the letters around) you may pet the heartless.**

**Sora: and if you do I'll bite your hands of.**

**Usagi: er…okay. What world will the characters go to next? Will they get away from the dreadful Annie? Who did Malifcent see in the Castle that Never Was? Do you seriously expect me to answer these things now? Hell no! Please review, and when I update you'll find the answer...to some of the questions at least...**


	16. Beaverhunt

**Usagi: Okay I'm back! Once again with another chapter and making fun of Xigbar…**

**Zakura: why?**

**Usagi: I just felt like it. Besides I figured he's the only one on the theme whom no one likes and who is not one of my fav. Characters (no offence to Xiggy-fans, he's cool and all)**

**Sora: (sarcastic) sure, cause characters you like are NEVER made fun of in your fics.**

**Usagi: fine... they do. I just needed someone to make fun of okay? **

**This chapter takes place in a randomly chosen world. They won't be meeting any old friends in this chapter (though they will hear about one) as everyone they DID meet in Traverse Town during the original game moved to Radiant Garden.

* * *

**

**Chapter 16**

**Beaver-hunt**

Traverse Town at night was very alike Traverse Town at day.

Even though out heroes left Radiant Garden once the sun had started rising, this city was still under the star-covered night sky.

This had also been the first Sora had seen of the outside worlds, yet the heartless showed no signs of remembering the city, as he sat comfortably on Riku's head.

"Find anything interesting?" Riku asked Xigbar who once again stood with his nose to the ground.

"I smell something familiar… but it's hard to figure anything out with all these masses of people" the wolf said.

While he sniffed frantically at the ground, Zexion sighed and took a deep breath through his nose.

"Amateur. It's this way" he said, and led the group towards the second district.

Axel had to laugh at this.

"See Xigbar? It IS possible to find someone without looking like a total retard" he said.

Xigbar growled and was about to say another insult back when Mickey stopped him.

"Come on guys, this is no time to be fighting" the king said.

As they arrived to the Second District they noticed a large mass of people, standing in front of a stage of some sort.

"Looks like there's some kind of concert going on" Kairi said.

"Or has been, I don't hear any music" Roxas pointed out.

"Let's go take a look" Mickey said.

They walked towards the stage just in time to see a man come out with a microphone.

"Ehm. Listen people, I'm really sorry, but the concert has been cancelled" the man said.

There were several cries of protest from the crowds, but with so many people saying different stuff at the same time it was impossible to actually hear what anybody was saying.

"Yes, yes. I'm terribly sorry. But it appears the band mascot has disappeared and the rest of them are too upset to play today, you'll be getting your money back for the tickets if you just talk to the…"

"We don't want our money back!" someone from the crowd yelled. "We want music!"

The rest of the crowd agreed, and started flinging insults at the man on the stage, who started looking more and more distressed.

"Let's go before this gets ugly" Riku said, the others agreed, and so they started to make their way up to the higher parts of the town, and walk past the stage with the angered crowd.

However as they walked up the stairs they almost ran into a teenage boy, who looked like he was in a hurry.

"Oops, sorry guys. You wouldn't happen to have seen a… ehm" he started before he looked at the angry crowd in front of him. "You know what? Never mind" he said and quickly ran of in the other direction.

"What was that all about?" Donald asked.

"Gosh. Think he's in trouble?" Goofy asked.

"Only one way to know" Riku said and started running after the kid, leaving Sora to cling on to his head for his bare life so he wouldn't fall of.

They followed the boy into the hotel, where they found him leaning against a wall, panting.

"Something wrong?" Kairi asked.

"No, nothing. It's just that our fans tend to get a little annoyed when we cancel our concerts" the boy said.

"A little? They look ready to tear the stage down" Donald said.

"Yeah… But I'm sure our manager can handle it" the boy said and scratched his head.

"He'll be wanting your head roasted in a few hours time I'd guess" Axel said, had he had a heart, he'd probably pity the poor guy who was currently standing on the stage trying to handle the angry mob.

"I KNOW! But there's no way we're going out there now. My girlfriend refuses to sing without that ridiculous pet of hers and what's a band without its lead singer huh?" the boy said. "It'd be a disaster".

"Aw… that's too bad… but hey! Maybe we can help!" Kairi said.

"We don't have time for this" Riku sighed.

"You have a heartless on your head…" the boy mentioned.

"Thanks. I've noticed" Riku growled back.

"What does the pet look like?" Kairi asked the boy who just stared at Sora with a puzzled expression.

"Huh? Oh, well, it's not really what most people would consider a pet. Lydia came home the other day followed by this beaver who suddenly stole my guitar, and he was actually quite good at playing it… We think he ran of from a circus or something as SOMEONE obviously taught him that" the boy explained. "We tried to locate the owner but since no one claimed it we kept it as a mascot. It wasn't until we got that one that we started becoming famous. Though I'm kind of sick of staying in the shadow of that blasted rodent, but Lydia simply loves it so what can we do?"

Riku was about to say something when Roxas interrupted.

"Don't worry. We'll help you look" he said.

"Have you lost your mind now too?" Riku whispered.

"I'll explain once we get out" Roxas whispered back. "The important thing now is that we've got to find that beaver!"

"You will? Oh thank god! The fans would probably tear me apart if I went out there now" the boy said happily. "But you guys will be okay, no one knows who you are… why do you have a heartless on your head?"

"None of your business! Let's just go already" Riku said sounding slightly annoyed.

"Okay…" the boy said, taking the hint. "I'll go tell the others the good news".

And with that, he disappeared into one of the hotel rooms.

"Now what? Are we going to look for a stupid boyband's mascot?" Riku asked.

"Well they mentioned a girl so they can't technically be a boyband…"

"Shut up Axel".

"Yes, we're going to look for the beaver. Cause I have a feeling he might be of use" Roxas said grinning.

"You don't have feelings" Riku pointed out.

"It's just a saying" Roxas sighed. "Zexion? Could you please explain? I'm starting to loose my patience here".

Zexion sighed.

"Well Riku, I'm not sure if you know of this but the whole fact that the boy mentioned a guitar-playing beaver could mean it's actually one of our old members" Zexion said.

"Of course" Axel said. "Aquatic rodent who likes music. Can't be anyone else but our melodious nocturne! Got it memorized?"

"Melodious Nocturne?" Kairi asked.

"Oh geeze. Not THAT guy!" Donald said. "It's Demyx. The idiot with the sitar."

"Not one of the nobodies I would like to find but I guess he's as good as any" Zexion said.

"Okay, I get it. So let's go see if we can find this Demyx" Riku sighed.

Sora failed to notice the annoyance in his voice and cheered with the squeaky annoying voice no one quite knew a heartless could make.

This resulted in Riku tearing the shadow of his head and handing him to Roxas, saying no more than "Your turn" before walking out into the street.

Xigbar was still intent on showing of his awesome sense of smell, and started sniffing the pavement before Zexion grabbed his tail and pulled him in the other direction.

"Show-off" Xigbar muttered.

"I've had this sense longer than you have so watch and learn nr II" Zexion said.

"Have you caught his sense already?" Kairi asked.

"Princess, I knew Demyx was here the moment we landed on this world" Zexion said.

"So why didn't you say anything".

"You never asked".

"Remind me why we are looking for these people again?" Riku asked.

"Well… the organization has been studying hearts for a long time" Mickey said. "They have as good chance as anyone to find an answer to our problem.

"Yes. But also notice that most of them have been without a heart since the fall of Radiant Garden" Riku said. "If they had found an answer then they wouldn't be nobodies today".

"If there's any help, you've got one thing the organization never had" Zexion said.

"And what is that?" Riku asked.

"I'm talking about the little black thing on nr XIII's head" Zexion said. "Most of our heartless died ages ago. With Sora's heartless around there might be a chance to regain his heart".

"Why didn't Xemnas ever think of that?"

"Would you seriously recommend fusing with Xehanort's heartless?"

"Good point".

They continued walking through the streets of Traverse Town, luckily there weren't many people there (they were probably all at the concert complaining) as they looked very funny where they walked.

Three humans, a mouse, a duck, a big dog, an ottsel and not the mention the heartless hanging on Roxas shoulder, following a wolf, which had his nose down to the ground, and a cat who stubbornly kept his nose up high.

Riku had a feeling that if they kept picking up random nobodies on their journeys, their group would keep on getting weirder.

The scent-trail led the group into the third district of Traverse Town, which was still kind of heartless-infected so there weren't many people around.

Soon the group found themselves in front of a door with a red flame painted on it.

"Is he in here?" Kairi asked.

Xigbar sniffed at the door frantically.

"Yup. He definitely passed through here" he said.

"Two hours ago" Zexion added, ignoring the glare he got from the wolf. "And he wasn't alone".

"Really? Who else was with him then?" Roxas asked. "Anyone from the organization?"

Zexion started sniffing the air again.

"It's… hard to tell. Smells like perfume, it's almost as if someone knew we were looking for them and tried to hide their scent" Zexion said.

"Eh, yeah. Sorry to break this to you Fluffy, ("My name is not Fluffy!") but before Xigbar here got turned into a wolf you're the only one of us who's been able to smell more than what's for dinner on that exact day" Axel said. "Perhaps he's got a date?"

"Who'd want to date a beaver? And more so, who'd want to date Demyx? As a beaver? Who also happens to be lacking a heart."

"It was just a suggestion."

"Let's just go already" Riku said and opened the door.

Inside the door wasn't like the inside of a house like most of the group expected ("most" excludes Donald, Goofy and Roxas who had been there before, well Roxas sort of) but it looked as though they had entered a cave.

A few steps down were a small lake, with an island in the middle. On the island stood a little house, which was starting to collapse.

"Who'd want to live in this dump?" Axel asked.

"Merlin did, the first time we met him" Roxas said. "Though the house didn't exactly look good back then either."

"Maybe that's where our melodious nocturne is hiding? Let's go take a look" Xigbar said and ran down towards the lake.

He was about to jump onto a stone in the water, when the stone quickly moved causing the freeshooter to fall into the water.

"That's it. Stop laughing" Xigbar growled to the rest, as everyone but Zexion were laughing at him. "Why didn't anyone tell me the rocks were moving? Especially you Roxas, you said you've been here before."  
"Well technically _I've_ never been here before, Sora came here even before I was born" Roxas said. "That+ I figured you'd be smart enough to figure that out on your own. Guess not".

"Oh very funny" Xigbar said as he crawled up from the water, shaking the water of like any other dog… or wolf.

Suddenly a roar was heard from bellow the water.

"What was that?" Xigbar asked.

"I don't know. I can't remember it being there before?" Donald said, and looked to Goofy.

"Me neither" Goofy said.

Suddenly a large tentacle came up from the water and snatched the closest thing, which happened to be Xigbar, and pulled him under the water.

"And that was definitely not there before" Roxas said.

"Shouldn't we try to save him or something? I mean he did save Donald, Goofy and the king" Kairi said.

"Alright, lets go see what it is" Riku sighed, he really didn't want to save that annoying nobody, but who could say no to Kairi?  
He was about to walk down to the water when suddenly a heartless jumped out, a parasite cage.

"Oh… so that's what it was" Riku said.

* * *

**Usagi: told you I'd bring Demyx in someday.**

**Zakura: he's not in the fic yet.**

**Usagi: no… but he will be! And more organization-members to come. **

**Riku: oh goodies…**

**Usagi: yeah… the random band appearing in this chapter does not have a name, cept for Lydia… and their mascot…who's missing….**

**Roxas: come on, we all know the mascot is Demyx.**

**Usagi: Never said anything else. **

**For those of you who don't know, the parasite cage is a heartless boss from KH1, the one they meet inside Monstro the whale. **

**So eh… that was all I guess? Please review and you'll get… a good feeling of making me happy, unless you send in a bad review, then you'll only get me mad/sad/indifferent. Oh yeah, and you'll get an update! As soon as the next chapter is finished anyway. See yah!**


	17. A Double Treachery

**Usagi: hi! Yeah, finally got this chapter done. Well more or less…**

**This time I have a lot of new nobodies to introduce. Not saying who just yet, but here's the chapter:

* * *

**

**Chapter 17**

**A Double Treachery**

"Rise and shine sunshine".

Xigbar opened his eyes and found himself inside a house, probably the one on the little island.

There was no furniture, except for one drawer which Merlin had left behind because it was an ugly old thing, rude too, it tended to open its doors whenever the wizard walked by, knocking him over (in case you guys haven't seen the "Sword in the Stone" Merlin has living furniture).

A little yellow bird was sitting only inches away from Xigbar's nose. It may look normal on first glance, but it had two feathers sticking up from its head, which fell back behind.

"Was that really necessary Larxene?" Xigbar asked as he got of.

"Of course. We had to make it look real, besides you were already wet. You have no reason to complain" the bird, Larxene, said.

"Quiet nr XII" said a new voice.

Larxene snickered, and flew up to land on the drawer.

With no bird blocking his view Xigbar was able to see who else was in the room with him.

In the middle of the room stood something that looked like a big fuzzy dragon (don't ask me what the heck it is… just another one of my weird fantasy critters) next to a blue dog, a bear and a smaller black and blue dragon.

"Anything to report?" the big dragon-thingy asked.

"Well Superior, most of these guys are to thrusting for their own good, but the key bearer's best friend doesn't seem to thrust me just yet" Xigbar said. "Not even Nr VIII and XIII suspect anything."

"Good. Let's hope it stays that way" Xemnas said. "I'm guessing VIII and XIII have no further wish to rejoin or organization?"

"Hell no. We'd be far better of without those traitors anyway" Xigbar said. "Not sure about nr VI though… I think I should watch him a little longer. But then there's the heartless…"

"What about it? It's just a shadow isn't it?" Larxene said. "Like little good-guy Sora could ever gather up enough darkness to become as much as a soldier".

"It's not its strength I'm curious about its intelligence" Xigbar said. "It appears to be far smarter than any other heartless I've ever met, safe for yours of course" he added with a look at Xemnas. "In fact not even the other heartless that appeared after the rest of us lost our hearts have ever shown any signs of having any emotion or intelligence. Maybe we should investigate it a little further."

"You're starting to sound like Vexen" Larxene snorted.

"Hey. Someone's got to take his place while he's gone" Xigbar said. "Speaking of missing members, did you get nr IX?"

"We found him" said the blue dog next to Xemnas. "But he wasn't really keen on coming with us. Something about wanting to stay in this world".

Xigbar looked around to see an unconscious blond beaver lying on the floor.

"Geez Saïx, was that really necessary?"

"We had to. We couldn't just lock him in or he'd disappear through a portal remember?" the smaller dragon, Xaldin added.

"Besides he was whining like there was no tomorrow. Really annoying" Larxene said. "I can't understand why we need him anyway".

"We need all the members we can find" the bear answered, Lexaeus of course. "Besides we wouldn't want him to join the enemy."

"I don't see how they are going to get any use for that wuzz but okay" Larxene sighed. "But then again… they drag Sora's heartless around."

Xigbar smirked and looked at Demyx.

"I'm sure our little melodious nocturne may still be of some use" he said.

Outside the house, Riku dealt the final blow towards the heartless which fell back into the water before it faded.

"Finally" he sighed as the previously captive heart flew to the sky, freed by his keyblade. "As if I wasn't sick of heartless enough already after having to deal with them for over a year non-stop already. No offence Sora" he added to the shadow who was just staring at him with big yellow eyes.

"What happened to Xigbar?" Kairi asked.

"Who cares? Good riddance I'd say" Axel said.

"Maybe we should check on him. What if he's hurt?" Mickey said.

"Yeah, so?" all but Mickey and Kairi replied.

"Boys" Kairi sighed.

"He's in there, Demyx is there too, but they're not alone" Zexion said.

"Somebody we know?" Riku asked.

"Not "somebody" in that sense" Zexion said. "But yeah, you know them".

"Just perfect" Riku said. "If there's one thing I hate more than heartless…"

He didn't finish his sentence, just glanced at Roxas.

"Fine. We get your point" Roxas said as he readied oathkeeper and oblivion. "Want to go check it out or not?"

"Nope. But if the Organization are up to no good I guess we must" Riku said.

They all made their way across the water towards the small house.

Before they got to the island however, a brown bear suddenly appeared in a poof of black smoke in front of them, carrying a large tomahawk.

"You!" Riku said.

"So you do remember me. Good, that saves me for one introduction" the bear said.

"Who is he?" Kairi asked.

"His name's Lexaeus, I met him in Castle Oblivion" Riku said. "I hoped I wouldn't be seeing him again but since the rest of the organization have already risen from the dead he obviously would too".

"Is that really how you greet old friends, nr V?" Zexion asked.

"Zexion. You're looking…fluffy" Lexaus said.

"Don't… say… a word" Zexion warned.

"I was just saying…"

"Shut up."

"What do you want Lexaeus?" Riku asked.

"I want that" Lexaus said, pointing to Sora who was still sitting on Roxas' head. "We hear that thing is somewhat different from his heartless brethren, so it'd be a perfect test subject and could help us get our hearts back".

"No" Roxas said quickly, and grabbed on to Sora's antenna, as if someone would try to snatch him from above.

"What's wrong Roxas? Don't you want your heart back?" Lexaeus asked.

"I do…but that doesn't mean I'm going to give you Sora. He's not just an experiment for you to play with" Roxas said.

"It's only a heartless" Lexaeus said, rolling his eyes.

"Maybe. But he's also our friend" Riku said, standing between Lexaeus and Sora and Roxas.

"It's a shadow. The weakest of heartless. It doesn't have any feelings or thoughts to speak of. And you call it a friend?" Lexaeus asked.

"Well it's definitely friendlier than you" Riku said and charged at the bear.

Lexaeus pulled out his tomahawk just in time to block Riku's attack.

"Why do you fight so hard to protect that monster?" the bear asked.

"Well how do you know I don't just fight because I hate your guts?" Riku asked.

"Ah. Good point".

"Enough with this nonsense" a new voice said.

A dark portal appeared on top of Merlin's house, and out of it stepped a giant fuzzy dragon.

"Xemnas!" Axel snarled, pulling out his chakrams.

"Oh Darnit, aren't you dead yet?" Riku asked.

"I'm afraid not" Xemnas said and flew down into the water (well he was too big to stand on any of the stones…)

"Now number XIII. If you treasure your non-existing life I order you to surrender that shadow".

"No way" Roxas said, snapping the heartless of his head without even noticing, the poor thing squealed in pain. "Oh…sorry".

"Interesting… it seems to be not only able to feel pain but actually has some kind of voice…though very squeaky… has it ever tried to speak in words?" Xemnas asked.

"None of your business" Roxas said.

Sora snarled at the monster, doing the same motions as his nobody.

"I have a theory I want to test. Heartless, come here" Xemnas said.

Sora perked his antennas, but didn't move, just as Roxas remembered; _Darnit… Xemnas can control heartless too! Sora, whatever you do, STAY PUT!_

Even though his nobody never said anything out loud, it appeared Sora had got the point, and stayed next to Roxas.

"Don't waste your time nr XIII. Heartless obey whoever is the strongest, and separated from your other half I'm afraid that leaves you somewhat weakened. Get over here heartless!" Xemnas ordered.

This time Sora bounced of before Roxas got time to grab him, whatever the shadow had left of willpower was swept away in three seconds.

"No Sora! Stop!" Kairi suddenly yelled, and to everyone's surprise (well mostly Xemnas and Lexaeus) the heartless halted, and looked around to see where the voice came from, as soon as he spotted Kairi, he ran straight into her arms.

"What in the name of…?" Xemnas said. "How were you able to control the heartless? You don't even have a speck of darkness in your heart!"

"I'm not trying to control him" Kairi said, and held the heartless closer. "Our hearts are connected; Sora promised he would always come back to me, so he will."

"Aw come on!" said a new, more girly voice. A yellow bird came out of the building and landed on Lexaeus' head. "Heartless are mindless cannibals, they have no memory of their past lives or whatever "promise" they may have made in the past."

"Well if that's true why did he return to Kairi, Larxene?" Axel asked, and smirked at the bird.

"Well that's obvious it…." Larxene started, before realising she had no idea.

"Silence nr XII. As for you, nr VIII, I'll deal with you later. It is true that most heartless are mindless, all the same we've never experimented on the effect that a nobody could have on a heartless, or vice versa" Xemnas said.

"What do you mean?" Riku asked.  
"So now you're interested?" Lexaeus asked.

Before anyone had time to answer, a small dog appeared from out of a portal.

"Superior, we have a problem. Nr IX is waking up" the newcomer said.

Axel saw the new one, and suddenly snorted.

"Hey! What's so funny?" the dog snapped.

"Is that Saïx? As a puppy?" Axel said and laughed. "Man! And I thought a cat was pathetic."

"I heard that!" Zexion said.

The puppy, Saïx, growled. "Do you want to say that to my face Axel?"  
"Drop it nr VII, can't you just knock him out again?" Xemnas asked.

"Er…yeah, about that…he's really fast you know" Saïx apologised.

Suddenly a blast could be heard from inside the house, and a small blonde animal squeezed its way through the barred front door.

"I don't want to go back! You can't make me!" he screamed as he ran of towards the water.

The door blasted open, and Xigbar appeared with his guns in his mouth. "Darnit Demyx, stand still!" he said.

But Demyx wasn't interested in stopping; he jumped into the water and swam for freedom, as Xigbar stopped on the shore.

"Aw, what now?" Xemnas yelled to the wolf.

"Well superior… remember about how I never learned to swim?" Xigbar said with an embarrassed smile.

"And these were your superiors?" Riku asked Roxas.

"And these were the guys who were once scared of?" Roxas asked back.

"Ah… fine. You got me" Riku said.

* * *

**Usagi: There! I brought back Demyx! Now are you happy?**

**Sora: I'll be glad as soon as you give me my heart back.**

**Usagi: what? Still whining about that?**

**Sora: YOU RIPPED MY FRICKING HEART OUT WOMAN!**

**Usagi: No I did not! Pete's heartless did.**

**Sora: moron…**

**Zakura: come to think of it, wouldn't Pete's heartless be a bit more than a shadow?**

**Usagi: nah… Pete's a moron. I figured that was fitting for him. **

**Zakura: his stupidity-level surely has nothing to do with…**

**Usagi: (interrupts bunny) If you want to see pictures of all the organization as animals (minus Lexaeus…) look in my profile, under Lost in Darkness fanarts there's a list of all of them, with pictures ;) **

**Check them out; and most importantly REVIEW!**


	18. Nobody Matters

**Usagi: yawn…. Why is it that I keep uploading stuff in the middle of the night?**

**Zakura: because that's when your sugar high is at it's highest?**

**Usagi: that'd make sense if this was Kingdom Dorks.**

**Zakura: or Dork Period. **

**Usagi: whatever…. I was having some problems with this chapter. Didn't know what world to do next but then I decided to write some more about the nobodies, even throwing in some random stories of Axel and Demyx' past (or past girlfriends…)**

**Of course whatever happened to Demyx and Axel before KH is entirely made up by me, as for Axel's other's name… it was never revealed in KH2, (nor any of the other nobodies from nr 7-12 in the organization) so I decided to use the same one as in another fanfic called "The Fanfictional story" (which is good, go read it. It's in my fav. List) written by one of my faithful reviewers :)**

**And before we start, yes I hate fight-scenes. They're hard to write so I tend to avoid them. If you wanted to see a big fight in this chapter…sorry. Might come some day in the future though.**

**And now, with no further ado, here's chapter 18.

* * *

**

**Chapter 18**

**Nobody Matters**

Xemnas soon discovered the downside of threatening two enemies at once since the moment he turned back to Riku and the gang, they were gone.

"Oh please… Did any of you even bother watching them?" he said annoyed to Saïx, Larxene and Lexaeus.

"What can I say? Watching Demyx flee for his life is my favourite hobby" Larxene shrugged.

"Well… now they're all gone. GO FIND THEM!" Xemnas yelled.

"Aye aye" Larxene said and took of.

The savage nymph, or savage bird, flew out of the tunnel in a rush, unfortunately forgetting to look to each side, so she didn't notice the silver-coated ottsel standing on a rooftop, while trying to keep a certain blonde beaver from screaming in panic.

"Looks like she missed us" Riku said, and let go of Demyx.

"Thank god, had I held my breath any longer I'd die" Demyx said.

"If you hadn't been breathing so heavily when you're scared that wouldn't be a problem" Axel said.

"Hey! You try to have all your former team-mates turn on you and try to kill you" Demyx said.

"I did. And you don't see me freaking out" Axel said. "Besides, all of your former team-mates haven't turned on you. First of all, you turned on them, but me, Roxas and Zexion are still on your side right?"

"More or less" Zexion sighed. "Don't see why we need this wuzz on the party".

"Neither do I" Riku said.

In order to stay hidden (and keep from falling of the small building) Donald had made sure the entire team (who weren't already small) were small enough to fit in the roof.

This included transforming Riku, Roxas and Kairi into ottsels, though he figured Mickey, Sora, and the nobodies were small enough already.

Donald and Goofy were in their "Pride lands"-forms, meaning a bird and a turtle.

"I have an idea. Maybe you should go back to that band that adopted you? They seem to really miss you" Kairi said.

Demyx just snorted. "Those guys are probably just glad to get rid of me. Lydia was really the only one who liked me" he said.

"Even so if Demyx goes back with them the Organization will return. He's not safe here" Zexion added.

"Aw… the troubles never end, do they?" Demyx sighed. "I was just hoping to live out a peaceful life".

"Sorry Demyx, as a nobody you're a freak of nature. Peaceful lives just don't exist for us" Axel said. "You may try all you want to fit in with these people, but sooner or later they're going to find out what you are and then what?"

"Well we should at least let Lydia know you're okay. She really worries about you" Kairi said. "While we're at it I'm sure Annie misses you too Zexion".

"Nah… she's probably gotten herself a new hamster or something by now" Zexion said. "That girl acquires new pets every week or so and her father always lets her keep them."

"Who's Ann…?"  
"Shut up Demyx" Zexion said, interrupting the beaver.

"Fine… I guess I should go see them, but then what? I can't just hide from those guys forever" Demyx said.

Riku just groaned, but then he noticed everyone was staring at him. _Who the heck made me the leader? _He thought to himself.

"If I say no, will anybody care?" he asked out loud.

"Nope" said the others.

"Figured as much. Come on Demyx, you're coming with us" Riku said.

"Are you serious? Thank you so much! I won't be making problems I swear!" Demyx said.

"My best suggestion would be to shut up and don't bother me. Otherwise you and Axel might find yourself thrown out of the gummi ship in space" Riku said.

"Ah…ok".

A while later everyone was back on the gummi ship.

"Before we take of I would like to remind everyone to sit still and hold on so we don't have any more falling-accidents. Is that clear?" Donald said.

"Aye aye captain!" Axel said.

The gummi ship blasted of before anyone got time to make any more sneaky remarks and set of for a new world.

"Gawrs. So where are we of to next?" Goofy asked.

"Oh oh! Can we go to Altantica please? I've always wanted to go there!" Demyx said.

"What the heck would we be going there for? This isn't a pleasure cruise you know, let's go to Halloween Town!" Axel said.

"Ha…why would you wanna go there?" Demyx asked.

"Because, I hate Atlantica+I know it scares the heck out of you. Got it memorized?" Axel said.

"IT DOES NOT! I just don't like it that's all. Besides, I'm no the one who's scared of WATER!" Demyx said.

"I'm not SCARED! Scaredycat. My element is fire, it doesn't work under water genius" Axel said. "But you on the other half, I happen to know that on your first and last mission in Halloween Town ran out of the town screaming that the town was haunted, as if that wasn't painfully obvious already. Got it memorized?"

"Will you two stop fighting?" Riku said annoyed.

"You can't really blame them Riku, it's just like listening to you and Sora" Kairi reminded him.

"It's not" Riku said.

"Actually it is" Roxas added. "Sora was probably too proud to say so himself, but being without emotions sometimes has its advantages. I don't mind mentioning it."

"Why did Axel even want to save that guy?" Zexion asked. "All they ever do is arguing".

"Well that's what friends do" Kairi said. "Sora and Riku were best friends, yet they kept fighting over everything, and always competing".

"Axel used to put bugs in Demyx' bed" Roxas said.

"And you know that because?" Zexion asked.

"Because he helped of course" Demyx sighed. "Locking the door was no use ever since he showed up".

"Well that was for your own good. The best way to rid yourself of your fears is to face them" Axel said.

"Like the time Roxas and Demyx pushed you into the swimming pool?" Zexion asked.

"…No. That was just annoying" Axel said.

"But it worked didn't it? You're not scared of water anymore" Roxas said.

"I NEVER WAS!"

"Sure you weren't" Roxas said, rolling his eyes.

Kairi giggled. "The first time I met nobodies I thought they were all emotionless shells. But you guys aren't like that at all" Kairi said.

"Well… after me the first one you met was Saïx, and he's ALWAYS been like that. Wouldn't' be surprised if he wasn't emotionless even BEFORE he turned heartless." Axel snorted. "Some of us like to live as we did before, acting like we still have our hearts even around other nobodies. It's a lot more fun than grieving and staring at a dumb heart-shaped moon all day anyway".

"Okay. But I was just wondering… do nobodies ever fall in love?" Kairi asked.

"Why do you ask?" Axel asked.

"Just curious."

"Well… no. Quite obviously not. For starters there's only been one girl in the Organization and she's a sadistic maniac. Second, well, a being with no heart can't fall in love, and that's final" Axel explained.

"So, what would you do if someone DID fall in love with you?" Riku asked with a smirk.

"Like that would ever happen" Demyx said.

"Hey shut up! Just so you know I used to be very popular among the girls before I lost my heart" Axel said. "Why, all the girls in my school would be waiting in line to date the great Ael!"

"Sure they would" Demyx said, rolling his eyes.

"You're just jealous. I'm sure you never even had a girlfriend" Axel said.

"What do you know about that? Girls looove musicians you know" Demyx said.

"If they can get over the fact that you're a wuss" Axel whispered.

"I heard that" Demyx snapped. "Actually I did have a girlfriend, just before I was turned into a nobody. She was the most beautiful girl on my home world".

"What happened to her?" Kairi asked.

"Nothing happened to _her,_ something happened to _me_" Demyx said. "I haven't seen her since that day…"

"Maybe you should go see her?" Kairi asked.

"Are you mad? What do you think she would say if she saw me like this?" Demyx asked. "She probably thinks I'm dead, which may even be true. What kind of life can you live with no heart anyway? As much as I hate to admit it, as much as I would like to _pretend,_ it could never be the same. It's better this way".

"Well… if you say so" Kairi said.

"Hey wait, I know the PERFECT place to go" Axel said suddenly.

"Does this have anything to do with scaring Demyx?" Riku asked.

"No, no. I was thinking about going back to Haven City. The Combat Races are about to begin, and it's an awesome event! You'll love it!" Axel said.

"We're not on vacation you know. It's not about going to the most enjoyable places" Riku said.

"I know that! I was just thinking… well. Seeing as we don't have any specific plans on where to go anyway…" Axel said. "Besides, that world is ruled by some of the most intelligent critters in the universe, the precursors. They travel all around the universe so maybe they know something that could help Sora here".

Riku glanced at the shadow on the floor, who right now was trying to open a can of soda after watching Roxas do the same. Roxas was staring at Sora too, and then looked up at Riku.

"Don't have anything to loose have we?" he said.

"Guess not" Riku sighed.

"Well then it's settled. Let's go to Haven City" said Mickey.

* * *

**Usagi: ****Yup…going back to that world again… Only because I wanted to write something based on JakX**

**Zakura: which she randomly decided to.**

**Usagi: meh… all the good Disney movies were taken so… **

**Well then, please review. **


	19. The City of the Combat Racers

**Usagi: And finally! The update you've all been waiting for!**

**This chapter once again introduces a few new characters from the Jak games, as well as one OC, but more about them at the end of the chapter. As mentioned it is based on Jak X Combat Racing, which is one of the few racing games I really like. (Like Jak2 and 3 are some of the few shooting games I like…that and GTA, where I tend to do many sick stuff…)**

**Sora: we all know you're sick.**

**Usagi: do you wanna get back in the cage?**

**Sora: I'm a shadow. No cage can hold me.**

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_**Warning: **_

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**Chapter 19**

**City of the Combat Racers**

Finding a place to land in Haven City wasn't very easy.

Previously the gummi ship had been dragged into the city by an air train and parked inside a garage in the Freedom League's HQ but manoeuvring it down there could be dangerous as it was a lot of traffic.

Landing in the wasteland was out of the question, seeing as the place was still overrun by metalheads and the occasional heartless, besides getting into the city could be difficult if they didn't have any elves that could let them in.

At the end they decided to land in the water, just inside the city walls.

As Donald steered the gummi ship towards the water, they noticed a building that had a large ottsel statue on top of it that looked very similar to Daxter.

"That's the Naughty Ottsel" Axel explained. "It's a restaurant owned by Daxter. The most popular place in Haven City".

"Well if Daxter owns it I guess there's a pretty good chance we could find our friends there right? Let's go look" Kairi said.

They walked out of the ship and towards the bar.

Just as Kairi was about to open the door however, Kate came out, with a red and brown critter n her shoulder.

"Oh? It's you guys again, how are things?" she asked.

"Hi Kate. We're doing fine, we just came by to check out something" Kairi said.

"So these are the people you talked about earlier" the animal on Kate's shoulder said.

The animal was mostly covered in brown fur, the hair on her head had red tips, and so did the ears, which looked very similar to rabbit-ears.

Her front feet had fingers much like a regular humans, only much, much smaller, like the hands of a rodent. The back legs were like rabbit-legs, the tail (brown with red tips) was bushy like the one of a squirrel (or more precisely, chinchilla).

"Nice to meet you all, the name's Tetra Quenya. And before you ask, I'm a chinbit, rabbit-chinchilla-cross. Kate's told me all about you" the animal said and pulled out her front paw.

"It's nice to meet you too Tetra" Kairi said and took shook the tiny hand. "So where are Jak and the others?"

"Oh? They're I Kras City, participating in the combat races there" Kate explained. "We were going later today. You could come along if you like, I'm sure they will be very happy to see you again".

"Oh yes can we?" Axel said and started leaping with joy until Riku "accidentally" stepped on his tail.

"Actually we were here to see some little critters who apparently had been space travelling a lot. We were hoping they might be able to help us with problem" Riku said.

"You mean the precursors? Good luck finding them" Tetra said but Kate signalled to her to be quiet.

"Samos may know how to find them" she said. "But he's in Kras too."

"Fine. Let's go to that racing town" Riku sighed. "Maybe we get lucky and some of the nobodies get run over".

"I heard that!" Axel said. "And get of my tail!"

"I see there are more of you now than last time we've met" Kate said, and looked to the heartless sitting by Roxas' feet. "I take it that's the heartless you were looking for?"

"Yeah. That's Sora, the beaver is Demyx and the cat is Zexion" Kairi explained.

Axel coughed something that sounded strangely like "Fluffy" and Zexion cast him a death-glare.

Before the two nobodies had time to fly at each other, an ottsel with long blonde hair peeked out of the door to the Naughty Ottsel.

"Kate! Tetra! Come look! Jak and Daxter just won the first race of the season!" she said.

"Oh? That's wonderful. I knew my brother could make it" Kate said and entered the door.

All went into the bar.

In the middle of it was a large machine of some sorts, with TVs positioned all the way around, all was currently showing a blonde man who appeared to be some kind of commentator.

"You saw it here folks. At least those of you who didn't die yawning or switched to the brand channel" the man said.

"That G.T. Blitz sure now how to ruin the fun" Tetra sighed.

G.T Blitz turned his attention away from the camera and towards Jak, who was standing behind him along with Keira, Torn and Ashelin. Daxter was perched on his shoulder as usual.

"So tell me Jak, were you frightened?" the commentator asked.

"No" Daxter said into the microphone before Jak had time to answer.

"Oh trust me, you will be" Blitz said with a smirk.

"It gets worse?" Torn asked, sounding a little nervous (or as nervous as Torn is capable of sounding).

"You bet it does. Back to you Greaser" Blitz said.

As the camera went back to the studio, Tess turned of the TV.

"Looks like they're doing okay for now, I sure hope my Daxy will be okay" she said.

"I'm sure he'll be fine, it's just racing isn't it?" Kairi asked.

"You've obviously never seen combat racing haven't you?" Tetra asked. "Then of course there's Krew's "special vintage"."

"What do you mean? Who's Krew?" Kairi asked.

"Krew was a really bad man who used to own this bar" Tess said. "Back then it was known as the Hip Hog Heaven. Yet it was mostly a cover for Krew's illegal activities. He helped get the metalheads into this city but Jak and Daxter destroyed him. Recently they got a letter from his daughter, Rayn, inviting them to the reading of his will".

"Why would she invite her father's murderers?" Riku asked. "More importantly, why would Krew invite them?"

"Who knows what Krew was thinking about at the time" Tess said. "Then again, he was working closely with the underground for a while, which most of us were members of. Though we had a feeling he was up to no good. However, Krew had hid away some special vintage for that occasion to drink to his passing. Though he didn't mention that it was poisoned. The only way they can get the antidote is to win the Kras City racing championship."

"Why on earth would he go through all that just to win a racing championship? Especially since he's already dead" Axel asked.

"Well apparently that was his big dream" Tetra said, rolling her eyes. "Yet there was no one who really liked him good enough to race for him. Wouldn't blame them, he poisoned his own daughter for the precursor's sake."

"Well at least they managed to win the first race, and that's good" Kate said. "Jak won the Racing Championship back in Haven a couple of years back too. Those weren't half as dangerous as the Combat Races of course, but he's a hero after all".

"Well we better get going to congratulate them" Tess said. "We'll be taking the air train, don't worry. There's more than enough room for all of us".

Kras City looked somewhat bigger than Haven, apart from that (and the racers who were driving aimlessly around in the streets) they were pretty alike.

"These drivers are nuts" Kairi said, as she anxiously held on to Sora to prevent him from running into the streets (which he had done 3 times already, heartless completely ignores traffic safety).

"That's why I hate going here" Kate said. "It's like an entire city of Corneliuses".

"I heard that!" said a voice behind them.

Cornelius ran up to the group.

"So you guys made it after all. Did you hear the news?" Cornelius said.

"Yes we did, yet I didn't see you in that news flash" Tetra said.

"TV-shows ain't my thing. Besides, who ever care about the guy who comes in second anyway?" Cornelius said. "Guess there is one thing Jak beats me at… he's lucky the combat races aren't performed on flut-fluts. That's where I'm the champ."

"Speaking of which, where is Jak?" Kate asked.

"Back at the race garage. I'll show you" Cornelius said. "Nice to see you again too by the way" he added to the keybladers and their friends.

He led took them to a garage filled with cars that looked very expensive (not to mention: prepared for war). Inside were also the other elves.

Keira was once again working on one of the cars; Jak and Daxter were helping her out.

Ashelin and Torn were talking, the green man Samos was looking at Jak and Keira.

There was also another woman in the room with blue hair whom the keybladers had never seen before. She looked up as they entered.

"Hi guys, we've got visitors" Cornelius said.

The others in the room looked up too, and Tess ran up to Daxter.

"Daxy-boy!" She said and gave him a hug.

"Didn't expect to see you again" Keira said to the newcomers. "Does your gummi ship need more repairs?"

"No, its fine now, thanks" Mickey said. "We just thought we'd drop by."

"Who are they?" the blue-haired woman asked.

"Oh I'm sorry. We haven't met have we?" Mickey asked. "My name is Mickey Mouse, and these are my friends, Donald Duck, Goofy, Kairi, Riku, Roxas, and the little ones are Axel, Demyx, Zexion and Sora".

"Well its nice meeting you all. My name is Rayn" the woman said, and turned her attention to Sora (who was still in Kairi's arms). "But that's a rather interesting creature, never seen anything like it".

She tried to touch the shadow, but Sora suddenly growled so she pulled her hand back.

"Oh, I'm sorry. He's never done that before" Kairi said. "He's usually very nice".

"Hm. Maybe he just smelt something funny. Never mind that, animals are strange like that" Rayn said. "But what on earth is it? Some kind of metalhead? Without metal?"

"It's a shadow heartless. Usually quite nasty creatures but don't worry, he's harmless" Riku said.

"He's kind of cute" Keira said. "Doesn't look dangerous at all".

"Oh trust me they can be quite evil sometimes" Demyx said, shuddering at the thought.

"Well I see most of you are far too young to be driving so I take it you're here to cheer us on?" Rayn said. "That's nice. We can't have too few supporters, especially with Mizo's gang lurking around."

"Who's Mizo?" Roxas asked.

"My my, don't tell me you've never heard of Mizo?" said a new voice.

A man with black hair came in, with a cigarette in his hand.

"The name is Razer, don't know if you've heard of me cause you're obviously not from around here" the newcomer said.

"Geez, what gave it away?" Riku asked.

"Well for once; your ears are remarkably short, second: you don't know who Mizo is" Razrr said. "Mizo just about runs the entire racing business around here. Eventually all the racers work for him, so I wouldn't get too cocky if I were you".

"Well that Mizo better watch HIS back, cause we're here to win!" Daxter said.

"We'll see about that" Razer said and smirked as he exited the garage.

* * *

**Usagi: ****and there you have it folks, 4 pages long. The TV-broadcast was taken from the game, though I forgot some of it (even though I watched all the cut scenes yesterday to refresh my memory) so it is slightly shorter. It's not all that important anyway **

**But anyhow, I promised a description of the new characters so here it is:**

**Tetra Quenya (OC)  
One of my old characters from Growing up in Haven City. Tetra is a though girl, though she sometimes plays nice to fool her enemies. She can act really sweet and interested one moment then betray you the next. This made her useful to the underground. She was an undercover agent in the Krimson Guard (Baron Praxis "Private army") though when it was discovered she was a traitor, the baron conducted nasty experiments on her, which resulted in her transforming into a chinbit.**

**G. T. Blitz  
Blitz covers all the Combat Races that go on in Kras City and around it, and he seems to care more about ratings than anything else. He gets a co-host later on, which he's not very happy about, but more on him later.**

**Rayn  
Rayn is the daughter of Krew, who was a big (fat) crime boss back in Haven City. Rayn however looks nothing like her father, and acts far nicer too. **

**Razer  
A retired racer with a selfish attitude. Works for Mizo, a crime boss in Kras City (also Krew's rival). He thinks he is far better than everyone else, and always carries a cigar around.**

**Tess  
Daxter's girlfriend. Loves big guns (and Daxter).**

**Usagi: I think that was about it, if I let out someone let me know kay?**

**And please review. **


	20. The Precursor Oracle

**Usagi: and here we go again. Another chapter, which introduces (kind of) three rather interesting characters from Jak3. **

**Zakura: interesting indeed…. If you've played Jak3 to the end.**

**Usagi: and if you haven't… I'll explain later. The characters don't have names and also you only hear their voices (or read) in this chapter, which takes a short break from the JakX-storyline, but don't worry. We'll be back with more Combat Racing in the next chapter. **

**Most about the stuff with the precursor oracle in Kras City is made up by me. I can't remember ever seeing one of those in JakX but I figured as the precursors are like gods in Jak and Daxter's world they probably have one somewhere. Even if it's not visible in the game. (It's a racing game anyway but I highly doubt they'd make an entire city only for racing..)**

**Sora: and you placed it in the least expected place.**

**Usagi: yes. Why not? Haven City's oracle in Jak2 was in a wooden cottage anyway. More info on the precursors for you non-Jak-players later, here's the next chapter:**

* * *

**Chapter 20**

**The Precursor Oracle.**

* * *

The combat races were extremely rough, which meant the elves spent most of their time fixing their cars (well Jak had his own private mechanic in Keira… but he was still in the garage to spend time with her.) 

Meanwhile Mickey decided to go ask Samos about the precursors.

"Well the precursors aren't easy to find, I should know, since I spent my whole life searching for them" the old sage explained.

"But you have met them haven't you? Can't you contact them somehow?" Mickey asked.

"Well to tell the truth… Jak and Daxter found them. By accident… but I don't know where they are now" Samos said. "But you could try to ask an oracle."

"Oracle?"

"They are statues made many ages ago, they have all the knowledge of the precursors and should be able to help with your problem, if not, contact the precursors themselves so they come and help if you ask".

"Where can we find this oracle?" Mickey asked.

"There should be a temple somewhere just down the streets" Samos said. "Just follow the signs."

Mickey glanced up at the street-signs next to him.

"Erm… No offence but I can't read these letters" he said.

"Oh? Right. I forgot you are not from this world. Well you should ask your ottsel-friend. He appeared at my doorstep once and asked me to teach him how to read and if he's forgotten already, give him a hit over the head from me" Samos said.

"I'll be sure to remember that. Thanks" Mickey said laughing.

He found Axel and Roxas next to Cornelius' car; Axel was on top of it, commenting on every little detail, while Sora the shadow was trying to chew on the wheels.

"Why are the cannons on this thing so small? I'm sure those on Jak's car are twice the size" the red ottsel asked.

"That's because Jak and Daxter have a fetish for big guns. Bigger don't always mean better" Cornelius said.

"So why are your guns always so small?" Axel asked.

Cornelius didn't answer, instead Tetra the chinbit climbed up at the car.

"I'll tell you why, he can't afford any bigger" she said with a smirk.

Cornelius cast her a death-glare.

"Jak is a freaking heir of Mar, of course he's got more money than me" he said. "I should have gotten plenty more rewards for saving the kids of haven City from being Brainwashed by blowing up that Krimson guard school".

"Oh please. If you had your way you would have blown up half the city" Tetra said. "And what do you mean brainwashed? I went to that school too and so did you if I remember correctly. Though only for a short while… maybe if you didn't keep blowing stuff up you might be able to get a job".

"Ehm. Am I disturbing?" Mickey asked.

"Not at all King. I think someone better stop these two before a fight breaks out" Roxas said.

"Wazzup Mousy?" Cornelius asked.

"Erhm not much… but I need some help reading the signs in this city, take it you're busy so I planned to ask Axel" Mickey said.

"But I'm not done checking out this car" Axel complained.

"You are done, let's just go" Roxas said and snapped up the ottsel before leaving the garage, followed by Mickey and Sora.

Even with Axel's limited language skills, they were able to find the "temple" as Samos had called it.

It wasn't all that easy, as the Kras City Oracle turned out to be inside a tall skyscraper.

"Not exactly the place I'd expect to find a religious artefact" Axel said.

"The elves in Haven City are clearly more advanced than the inhabitants on most other world's we've been to. Perhaps they're the same with their religion as well? And don't really care about building churches and temples?" Roxas suggested.

"Sure this is the place Axel?" Mickey asked.

"It says "Precursor Oracle" on the sign" Axel said. "Or… I'm sure it says Pre—rs-r –ra-le. Not sure of the rest but I'm pretty sure it's o, c, and u. I'm not quite sure of those letters".

"Well either way it's our best chance; did Samos say what the oracle looked like?" Roxas asked as he opened the door, not looking ahead as he walked into the building.

Mickey just glanced inside, "I'm guessing it looks a little bit like that" he said, and pointed at something behind Roxas.

Roxas turned around, and dropped his jaw in surprise, even Sora, who was currently on his head, looked shocked.

In the middle of the room stood an enormous statue, which looked like nothing neither Mickey, Sora nor the nobodies had ever seen before.

It appeared to have been made from gold, with giant clear blue stones as eyes.

Its head was shaped like a giant bug, with eyes to match and a long nose. The body looked a bit large for the tiny head, with enormous hands.

"If that's how the precursors look like I understand why they so rarely show their faces" Axel said. "How are we supposed to talk to it?"

Mickey walked up to the statue, not being quite sure himself he tried to talk to the statue.  
"Erm…excuse me? Great oracle?"

No reaction.

"Well that was a total failure. Perhaps it doesn't like mice" Axel said.

"Or maybe there's an on-button somewhere?" Roxas suggested.

"Samos said just to ask it" Mickey said scratching his head.

Sora appeared to be getting bored, and bounced of Roxas' head, onto Mickey's and then to the floor before he ran up to the oracle and started to climb it's nose.

"Are you sure that's a shadow and not a powerwild in disguise?" Axel asked.

As Sora had climbed halfway up the oracle's nose, a powerful voice boomed trhough the room.

"**Who dares to awaken the great oracle?"** said the voice, so loudly Sora fell of and disappeared into the floor for a short while to hide from the scary voice, only being visible as a black spot on the floor.

"Oh, uhm. I'm sorry great Oracle. We came here to seek advice" Mickey said.

"**Does this have anything to do with the heartless you're carrying?" **the oracle said, sounding almost bored.

"How do you know about that?" Axel asked.

"**Because I'm an oracle, duh!" **

"O…k? This guy is weird, in all senses of the word" Axel said.

"Well so you obviously know what a heartless is. That leads me to my question; do you know any way that a heartless can return to its previous form?" Mickey asked.

The oracle silenced.

When it finally answered again, the voice appeared to be somewhat different.

"**Well dudes… the precursors encountered several heartless on ou…their journey. Some were even turned, yet we've never really tried to return a heartless to it's previous forms as precursor heartless tend to be so weak they don't survive long"** it said.

"**But dark maker heartless are pretty strong" **it said again, with a third voice.

Axel raised an eyebrow at the statue.

"How many of you are there talking anyway?" he asked.

"Give me the mic you moron" said a much fainter voice from inside the statue before the first voice returned again.

"**Erm. Fine. So you got us. This is the precursors speaking. Three since you ask so nicely. Ignore what the last guy here says, he's an idiot. But mr. Surfer-guy here is right. We've never tried returning a heartless to its previous form as most precursors have so little darkness in their hearts the heartless just about dies of their own. Though that heartless of yours is rather interesting… was it human?"**

"Yes that's right" Mickey said.

"**We'd like to have a closer look at this creature. But at the moment we are rather far away from the planet, it may take a few days for us to reach your destination; can you stay where you are for a while? With the combat races going on I'm pretty sure you won't get bored, just keep the heartless under control so it doesn't harm anyone"** the precursor oracle said.

"That won't be a problem I guess. Sora's very well-behaved for a heartless" Mickey said.

"**If you say so, see yah later dudes" **the oracle said, before it silenced once again.

"Well. This was progress at least" Mickey said.

"Do you think they can do it?" Roxas asked.

"Would you rather ask Xemnas for help?" Axel asked.

"Don't worry Roxas, I'm sure we'll find a solution if we work together" Mickey said. "Now let's get back, I'm sure the second race will be starting soon, that will get your mind on other things".

* * *

**Usagi: and there you have it. Not much action on this chapter but a promise of a new group of visitors… I promised to tell about the precursors so here we go:**

**The precursors are the creatures that apparently created Jak and Daxter's world. They were highly advanced creatures, no one knew what they truly looked like up until the end of Jak3, but I won't reveal WHAT they looked like until later in the fic, when they actually make an appearance. **

**SPOILER WARNING: Jak and Daxter. Jak2. Jak3  
**

**In "Jak and Daxter; The Precursor Legacy" it was revealed that the precursors vanished ages ago, Samos the sage had decided to find out what happened to them, and what they truly were.  
In Jak2, a rift gate left behind by the precursors unleashes the metalheads onto Jak and Daxter's world, and our heroes (including Keira and Samos) are sent of into the future, and find themselves in Haven City. Later in the game it is revealed the precursors once fought a mayor war against the metalheads, or Hora Quan as they call them. **

**In Jak3 a new enemy is revealed, the dark Makers, which are precursors gone bad. The end of the game reveals what the precursors really look like. Which I'm not gonna say yet;p **

**So… please review people! **


	21. It Sucks To Be Sora

**Usagi: the plot is slowly moving forward and another chapter is ready… more or less…  
Midnight is the perfect hour to upload Fanfiction!**

**Zakura: Actually its one hour passed midnight.**

**Usagi: oh? Guess I'm late then:3 Last part of this chapter was a little interesting to write as it's seen mostly trhough the eyes of Sora, who in case you had forgotten, is still a heartless, which is why he's still a little mentally challenged (more so than usual). Yet he still manages to discover something rather important (also JAKX-SPOILER! But I've already warned you it'll be plenty of those in this fic), too bad he can't seem to tell anyone. **

* * *

**Chapter 21**

**It Sucks To Be Sora**

"You know, except for a small rash in the nether regions, I feel fine. Maybe Krew was bluffing with the whole poison-stuff" Daxter said, as the crew were back at Krew's office building.

"I had the bottle analyzed. There were traces of black shade at the bottom, a rare and deadly plant found in the wasteland" Ashelin said. "We were poisoned alright."

"Father never cut corners. Trust me, it's the real deal" Rayn said.

"Never fear! When the going gets though…Jak will get us out of it" Daxter said.

"Well. We just have to win the whole thing" Cornelius said and shrugged.

"Against those lunatic racers out there? What are the odds?" Daxter said.

"You don't want to know" Torn said saddened.

"Geez, guys. Where's your sense of adventure?" Tetra teased.

"Easy for you to ask that, your life's not on the line" Daxter complained. "Someone better win this race, or I'll be very pissed".

"And very dead" Axel commented.

"Nice one, guess not all ottsels are complete morons" Tetra said.

"Okay that's it! You're going down" Daxter said and attacked Tetra, or would have hadn't Jak grabbed his tail.

"Knock it of. Are you even going to attack girls now?" he asked.

"Tetra's not a girl; she's an evil half-demon, half-rabbit, and half-chinchilla thing. She's probably related to Usagi's psychotic rabbit as well" Daxter said.

"Who's psychotic what? Get down from there" Jak said, pulling Daxter into the couch.

"Guys, stop fighting it doesn't help at all" Kate said.

"She started" Daxter growled.

"That's only because you're so teasable" Tetra said.

"That goes for you too Tetra" Kate said.

It was time for another race, and everyone not racing was watching it on TV in the bar.

"Oh my god this is awful. Is that really legal?" Kairi asked as one of the cars exploded and flew of the course.

"Hey. This sport's called Combat Racing for a reason" Axel said, he was watching the screen with great interest. "Why, if still had my old body I would have blown those guys to smithereens! I wouldn't need a weapon, other than my chakrams perhaps."

"It's a cruel world, better get used to it" Kate said, the tone of her voice revealed she didn't like it much either.

"Well I'm not going to watch this, coming guys? Kairi asked. "Guys?" she said again as she wasn't getting any replies.

"Not now Kairi, this is exiting" Riku said.

"Boys!" Kairi growled, and went outside.

Seeing as it was the middle of a race, the streets were slightly safer to walk in than usual, even little kids came out from the safety of their houses and started playing.

"It appears this town has its good sides after all" Kairi said to herself and smiled.

Suddenly, without warning a small creature ran out of an alleyway right in front of Kairi, who jumped in surprise, until she noticed was it was.

"Oh… just a rat" she said, as the rodent ran of in the direction she had come from.

As she looked for the rat, she heard high-pitched squeaking behind her, and suddenly dozens of rats ran out of the alley and ran straight past her. Kairi wasn't usually scared of rodents but frankly…who'd want twenty wild rats running straight at you? **(Usagi: I DO! Zakura: YOU'RE NUTS!)**

She screamed.

The rats ignored her, all but one who suddenly stopped and looked at her with an almost curious look.

Kairi looked back at the rat. It had a peculiar colour, almost blonde, and it looked somewhat familiar.

"Do…I know you?" she asked, she could hardly believe she was talking to a rat, but then again…didn't the team she was travelling consist of a giant mouse, a dog, a duck, an ottsel, a beaver and a cat?

The rat however didn't answer; it just looked at her, and then ran away again, following the other rats.

_Must be just a normal rat after all,_ Kairi thought, and got up.

Suddenly she heard engines roaring and a few racing cars drove past her.

One car drove up right next to her and actually bumped into the wall only 5 feet away from her, Daxter jumped down from his spot on top of the car.

"Hey Kairi! Did you see us? We won!" the ottsel said enthusiastically.

"Oh that's wonderful Daxter, sorry. I was out here all the time. Combat racing just isn't my thing" Kairi apologized.

"Must be a girl-thing" Jak muttered.

"What are you talking about? Tess and Keira loves it" Daxter said.

"But those two aren't just normal girls. Tess loves gun and Keira is a mechanic. Want a ride back to the garage?" Jak asked Kairi.

"Er… no thanks. I'd rather walk if you don't mind" Kairi said.

"Suit yourself then" Daxter said and took on his goggles before crawling back up to the top of the car. "STEP ON IT JAK!" he yelled as Jak backed away from the wall and followed his friends back to the garage.

Kairi walked back to the garage as well, on the way she saw the blonde rat again sitting on a trash-can grooming itself, like any other rat.

Once it noticed her however it jumped of the trashcan and went into hiding.

"Guess I must have imagined it" Kairi said to herself and kept walking.

Back at the garage everyone were celebrating Jak's win.

"Congratulations Jak, you've now qualified our team for the Deathdome" Rayn said.

"That sounds nasty" Daxter said.

"It is" said a voice behind them, and in came no other than G.T. Blitz, the host of G.T Blitz-show which covered the combat races.

"You guys will finally see what I have been talking about all along. Complete speed, and complete danger!" he added with a dramatic pose. "Many racers have died on these lanes, chasing a sad dream."

"Why don't they just change the rules on these races so that no one has to die?" Kairi asked.

"Where's the entertainment value in that?" Blitz asked sounding confused. "Well good luck Jak, you'll need it. More than I need ratings".

Blitz walked away laughing as Daxter slapped Jak in the head.

"Hey! Say some hero stuff!" the orange ottsel said.

"I got to go fix some thing, you guys party on without me" Rayn said as she got up.

"Need any help?" Roxas asked.

"No, there's no need" Rayn said and left.

"Why did you get so helpful all of a sudden?" Riku asked.

"I don't know… there's just something suspicious about her" Roxas said.

Sora nodded in agreement, before going back to eating whatever eatable (and non-eatable) he found on the table.

"Rayn might be the daughter of Krew, but I assure you she's on our side in this" Keira said. "Krew tricked her too."

"You mean he poisoned his own daughter?" Kairi asked, and Keira nodded. "I don't believe it."

"He was a real bastard that's for sure" Keira said. "But er… where did that heartless of yours go?"

Roxas looked at the table which was noticeably empty (no food either, even the candles were gone). "Strange, he was here a minute ago. I'm sure he'll show up sooner or later" he said.

The shadow in question had in fact left the room, and was now looking for Rayn.

He followed her scent into another room, and heard an unknown voice.

"So just remember Rayn, pour in your drink first, and it should be harmless, the others will get the full dose" the voice said.

Sora used his nifty ability to make himself as flat as the floor, and crept under the door. Okay, so maybe there WERE advantages to being a shadow after all.

He could only smell one heart in the room, yet there were two people, one was transparent though, as if he wasn't even there. And he was HUGE. He almost looked like a big body heartless, 'cept he was obviously not a heartless. Sora would have noticed.

"I wished I could give you a hug" the transparent man said.

Sora, being too busy looking at the big man (heartless have a very short attention span) didn't see where he was going and crashed into a vase.

Rayn quickly pressed a button on a small disk and the transparent man disappeared, before she turned around and looked at Sora with a confused look.

So the transparent man came from the disk.

"Oh, it's just the human's little pet" Rayn said.

Sora's antennas perched at the word "pet", he remembered having heard it before, Zexion had been called Annie's "pet" earlier hadn't he? And judging by his reaction it wasn't a good thing.

Sora hissed.

"Shouldn't you be at the party? Shush, go away" Rayn said.

Sora didn't move an inch. He had no obligations to listen to this woman. He could obey Riku, for the small bits of dark powers he still possessed, and Roxas, as he was Sora's other half after all, and then there was Kairi… hello, she was Kairi. Did he really need a reason to listen to her?  
Rayn frowned. She really didn't want to resort to picking up the heartless and carry it out of the room. It was creepy.

She really didn't understand why anyone would want to travel with such a thing.

Perhaps she should just ignore it and go back to the party.

She turned around and went to pick up the disk, but that's when Sora reacted.

Swift as a…well…shadow-heartless… he snatched the disk and headed for the door.

If he showed this to his friends, they'd definitely see what kind of person this Rayn-woman was.

"Hey! Stop thief!" Rayn said and ran after him.

Sora ignored her; all he cared about right now was to get back to his friends.

However he didn't get that far, he crashed into someone on the way and as he fell backwards, the little he had left of reasonable thought was currently thinking: _Note to self: look where you're going! Oh screw it, it's not like I'm gonna remember that later._

"Sora, what are you doing?"

It was Kairi.

Rayn quickly caught up to the two.

"Oh, thank precursors you're here. Your little pet just stole a video-disk from me" she said.

Kairi gave Sora a mean look, Sora shuddered. He really didn't want to be around Kairi the very few times she was angry, especially if she was angry at _him_.

"Come on Sora, give it to me" she said.

Sora put the video disk in her hand, just hoping she would look at it before giving it back, she didn't.

"Here you go Rayn. I'm terribly sorry, I don't know what's wrong with him today" Kairi said and gave the disk back to Rayn.

"Well it doesn't seem broken luckily" Rayn said. "Perhaps you better keep that thing on a leash or anything."

"Maybe we should" Kairi said and glared at Sora again.

Sora shook his head rapidly and pointed at Rayn.

"Enough already" Kairi said and picked up the shadow. "Let's just go back okay?"

Sora tried to wriggle loose from Kairi's grip but it was no use, behind her he saw Rayn went back to her room.

* * *

**Sora: Do you enjoy torturing me?**

**Usagi: yup.**

**Sora: …no comment.**

**Usagi: so we figured out some interesting stuff in this chapter. Rayn isn't exactly honest, and there are rats in Kras City…big deal. There's nothing special about those.**

**Xigbar: as if!**

**Usagi: well, that we'll see. Later (evil laugh). Please review.**


	22. New Drivers

**Usagi: Welcome back. In order to save time I smashed some scenes from JakX together for this chapter. 3 scenes I think and one extra at the end which is actually in the wrong order but who gives a damn?**

**This chapter introduces a few new characters, like always I'm gonna tell more about them later.**

**But something big happened today!**

**Zakura: You're finally getting Sasuke neutered?**

**Sasuke: GASP!**

**Usagi: no… more like the opposite really. I got a new rabbit!**

**Zakura: you're getting THAT one neutered?**

**Usagi: no**

**Zakura: why am I the only rabbit you got neutered?**

**Usagi: cause you're my only killer rabbit whom I have no intention of ever breeding.**

**Zakura: mopes**

**Sora: stop whining. At least she didn't take your heart out.**

**Usagi: my new bunny is a gorgeous brown sable rex doe named Romance told by Aroma (Aroma for short). She's still a little shy but when she grows up I'm hoping she and Sasuke will make cute babies.**

**Sasuke: I like the sound of that.**

**Usagi: hold your horses bunny-buy. She's still only 3 months old so she's far too young to meet you yet.**

**Sasuke: aw…**

**Usagi: but enough useless babble. Here's the new chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 22**

**New Drivers**

"Welcome back to the G.T Blitz show!" said the grinning G.T from the TV-screen in the garage's living quarter.

"Sadly, the Network has decided to ad a "co-host" to my show. I can't believe they think anyone can outshine yours truly" G.T said with a hint of annoyance to his voice.

"Sora outshines you, idiot, and he's a heartless, not the brightest of critters in both senses of the word" Axel said.

"So I'd like you all to meet my new colour-commentator as it were, mr…Pecker?" G.T said to a new face on the screen.

Colour was the right word, as the creature clearly wasn't either human or elf.

It looked like a mix of a monkey and a parrot. He had the face of a monkey, blue rings around his eyes on the red-feathered head.

On the top of his head he had three feathers sticking up, red with yellow on the tip.

The body was of a red macaw, a yellow patch on his belly, yellow underneath the wings and the upper sides of the wings were red with blue tips.

He had bird-feet and a monkey tail; it too was red with a few yellow and blue stripes on the tip.

"Thank you very much G.T, and hello to all you viewers out there" the monkey-bird said.

As he saw the bird, Daxter stared at the screen.  
"Alright that's it! Who's his agent?" he asked.

"Do you know that… thing?" Roxas asked.

"Yeah, he's name's Pecker. And he's a moncaw by the way" Jak said as he grabbed Daxter before he went to attack the TV.

"Ah" Roxas said. "…Never heard of it".

"It's a rare species. As far as I know Pecker could be the only one of his kind back in Haven City" Kate said. "They're actually rather fascinating. I did a project on them back in second grade. Did you know that moncaws originated in the jungles near Sandover Village where…"

"Thank you Kate. I heard you back in second grade" Tetra said. "And I'm sure the rest of the school did too as the teacher decide to read it out loud over the speakers".

On the TV, Pecker continued his introduction.

"My first network assignment has been to investigate the rumoured "super-bet" on this year's championship race. Sources say an underground crime connection is involved. Unfortunately my sources won't return calls, and are now missing, and are probably dead!" Pecker announced. "But! Pecker is not so easily swayed. I will find out the truth about this bet and report my findings right here on this show."  
"I'm sure you will Pecker. It's gonna be so _great_ working with you" G.T said, with extra pressure on the word "great".

"You too Blitz-man" Pecker said and slapped G.T on the back so his hair… or shall I say wig…almost fell of. "Oops, Sorry".

"Why you little bird-s…." G.T said before a message appeared on screen. "We're having technical difficulties. Please Stand by".

"Ah, perfect. Finally a reason to watch that dreadful show. I just wished they'd show the fight on screen" Tetra said.

"I want to watch Pecker get roasted. He always gets the sweet gigs in these adventures" Daxter growled. "And how does Blitz get that sheen in his hair? I must know".

"I guess we'll see some pros out there today" Ashelin said.

"Oh joy" Rayn said ironic. "That Blitz gives me the creeps, and the slimy blighter is even worse in person. If only he were…"

"Hey people! Did you catch my broadcast?"  
Right on cue, Blitz in person suddenly entered, followed by his flying camera.

"The competition is really heating up. People say it's down to you and Mizo's dream-team, and the odds-makers say your team is coming up short" he said.

"That's because they haven't figured _me_ into the count" said a newcomer, a large elf covered in armour.

"Is my camera out of focus? The great Sig has entered the competition" Blitz said. "This is going to be better than I thought, but if you'll excuse me, I've got some _real_ interviews to do".

"Yeah, you go do that" Sig said as Blitz left. "Sorry I'm late for the party guys, I heard about Krew's little potion, that's why I never drank on the job. Like I always say: never trust a dead guy. But don't worry; I'll help you get the antidote".

"Easy for you to say, your life's not on the line" Ashelin said.

"For my friends it is" Sig said.

"Good to have you back Sig" Jak said.

"Guys, this is our old friends, Sig" Kate told the keybladers. "He used to work for Krew as well. And these are our new friends, Riku, Kairi, Roxas, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Axel, Zexion, Demyx and Sora".

"Nice to met you all" Sig said. "Are you racers too?"

"Oh no. We're not really old enough to drive" Kairi said.

"I am old enough but I can't reach the pedals" Axel said.

"And thank Kingdom hearts for that, I wouldn't trust you behind the wheel of any of those racing cars" Zexion said as Axel glared at him.

"I'd like to see you do better, _Fluffy!"_ Axel said.

"I would, but unfortunately I don't reach the pedals either" Zexion said. "And oh yeah, the name's Zexion in case you forgot."

"Well you certainly are fluffy. Kind of like my old poopsie bear" Sig said, then suddenly noticed the cat was biting his foot…his armoured foot.

"Was it something I said?" Sig asked.

"Don't mention the F-word around Zexion, although that was kind of funny" Riku said.

"Do prepare for some nasty nightmares the upcoming days, all three of you" Zexion said.

"But I didn't say the f-word" Sig said.

"The other f-word genius" Riku said.

"Oh. That f-word".

"So Sig, I guess you'd want to fix your car up before the race? Want me to show you the race garage?" Rayn asked.

"I'm coming too, I need to upgrade the weapons on my car too" Jak said.

"And by you I guess you mean me?" Keira asked teasingly. "I know how it looks after YOU'VE been fiddling with that thing".

They (including Daxter and Axel who wanted to see Sig's car) went down to the race garage.

As the boys (well mostly Keira…) were fixing the cars, Rayn was checking out something on a table she was holding.

"Jak, you're getting great bonuses for the season. But I've heard a nasty rumour someone's been hiring top mercenary drivers to race. Whoever it is they want to beat us badly" she said.

"You bet" Axel said. "I hear these drivers are getting bonuses for kills, and my guess is they won't think twice about cheating. Got it memorized."

"You're enjoying this aren't you?" Daxter asked.

"Who me? No I swear, I feel no happiness in your suffering" Axel said.

"You don't feel anything dumbass" said Roxas, who came down into the garage closely followed by Sora, who growled at Rayn as he entered.

"Uh-oh. Here comes a rather large specimen now" Keira said and nodded towards the door.

In came Razor, followed by some kind of robot.

"Well well, if it isn't the rat, and his little animal" Razor said, pointing at Daxter as he said "animal".

"Oh, you're a riot" Daxter said ironically.

"Have you met Mizo's newest racer? This is UR-86" Razor said, nodding towards the robot. "The deadliest driver on the planet, behind me of course".

UR-86 walked up to Daxter and picked him up by the head.

"Don't be shy, this bucket of bolts loves living things" Razor said, as Sora bit UR's foot, probably to make him let go of Daxter. "So he can make them dead". At that line, Sora let go and hid behind Roxas, UR let go of Daxter who fell to the floor, and hid behind Jak.

"86 holds the biggest record of kills in a single event, even I have to watch out for this one" Razor said. "Good luck out there".

Razor left with the robot, laughing to himself as he disappeared out the door.

* * *

**Usagi: There you have it folks. Axel and Keira just stole Ashelin's line cause I forgot to add her into the scene and didn't bother correcting it. Who needs her anyway?**

**Ashelin: hey!**

**Usagi: as promised: here's a bio of the new characters introduced in this chapter.**

**Pecker: A character first introduced in Jak2 as the interpreter for a blind and mute soothsayer called Onin. He's Daxer's rival and those two often fight. Pecker is a moncaw, part monkey, part macaw. Hybrids appear to be very common in these games.**

**Sig: Also introduced in Jak2, as a co-worker of Krew. Sig is a wastelander, so he is very tough, but gentle. In Jak3 he blew his image by announcing having owned a poopsie bear.**

**UR-86: what to say? He's a robot…. Not much of a personality there. **

**Usagi: well please review.**


	23. Sabotage

**Usagi: hi guys and I'm sorry for the slow update (especially Rilaveke cause you know I've been working on this for some time). This chapter has been nearly finished for days but I kept stalling it cause I didn't want to end it just yet+ there was one part I really wanted to add.**

**Zakura: without that part this chapter would have been updated at least 2-3 days ago.**

**Usagi: hush. At least this way it was longer. Some of you may have noticed that an average LiD-chapter is about 2-3 Word-pages long (that goes for most of my fics really, if you didn't notice…well it's a fact. Otherwise it would be even longer to wait between each chapter and I know you won't like that), but this chapter is actually about 3.5 pages long! Over 4 pages counting the author's note.**

**Sora: Translation: Shorter chaptersmore chaptersmore reviewsUsagi likes attention.**

**Usagi: that's not it…**

**Sora: is too!**

**Usagi: Watch it! As the author of this fanfic I have the ability to make your life rather miserable.**

**Sora: you turned me into a shadow. How can it even get any worse?**

**Usagi: I could let Annie have you.**

**Sora: ….go on.**

**Usagi: so here's the long-awaited chapter. Kind of JakX based seeing as in the game, Jak's weapons do crash, but during a random race, and it obviously wasn't caused by the same character.**

**Enjoy:**

* * *

**Chapter 23**

**Sabotage**

* * *

"Can it get much worse?"

"Kairi, your constant complaining is disturbing me from watching the race".

"This isn't a race Axel, it's a massacre!"

She was right really. Today's contest was a Deathmatch.

As the name said, it was a contest based around nothing but fighting. The racer which destroyed the most cars was the winner.

Kairi decided not to leave the house this time, but instead sat down next to the boys sulking, and demonstratively refusing to look at the screen.

"The biggest crime here is that my dad won't let me race" Keira said.

Kairi and Kate stared at her. "Way to go girl!" Tess shouted behind her.

"What? It looks so much fun" Keira said.

Kairi looked at Kate with a puzzled expression; Kate shrugged, and stared at Keira's father Samos.

"I knew I shouldn't let her play so much with Jak and Daxter as a child" Samos sighed.

"Something's wrong!" Rayn said suddenly.

Kate and Kairi looked away from Samos for a moment and stared at the screen, Kairi quickly turned away again as one random car blew up.

"What is it?" she asked as she covered her eyes. "Tell me when it's over".

"It could be over sooner than expected, Jak's not using any of his weapons" Rayn said and pulled out a communicator. "Jak, what's going on?"  
A crackling noise was heard, but the answer came soon.

"Daxter here, Jak can't come to the phone at the moment as he's busy trying to not get killed, the weapon system is malfunctioning" the ottsel said in the communicator.

"We can see that" Rayn said as Keira took the phone.

"Have you checked the weapons? Is something missing?" she asked.

"Hold on" Daxter said. More crackling noises as he crawled back on the roof of the car to check the cannons.

"Found it, one of the wires appears to have been cut" Daxter said.

"Can it be fixed?" Keira asked.

"Duh. It's cut! I can't fix it here, I would need a new one" Daxter said.

Keira said a few words which I'd rather not repeat in this here fanfic.

"Can't you stop the race?" Kairi asked.

"Impossible. You can't stop a whole race because one car breaks down. After all it happens all the time" Keira said.

"Then what are we going to do? We can't just go out there and my Daxy could get injured" Tess said.

"Now I kind of wished Xigbar was still here" Mickey sighed. "Can't one of you just use your dark portals to get to the car?" he asked the nobodies.

"Are you nuts? We'd be road kill in seconds" Axel said. "If a creature were to survive out there it would have to be able to crawl around underground."

Everyone's eyes suddenly turned to the table, where Sora had been only two seconds later, Roxas pulled the heartless out from under the couch, and took out an old sandwich from his mouth.

"What? There's no way you're sending him out there!" Kairi said.

"Relax Kairi, he'll be fine, I once saw a shadow being stepped on by a behemoth back in Maleficent's castle and it did fine" Riku said. "So what do you say Sora? Just take the spare wire out to Jak and Daxter's car, and try to avoid the other cars and especially the weapons".

Sora however, just stared at her with a confused look.

"I think you lost him there, shadows have hopelessly short attention spans" Roxas said. "But I think I've got an idea, Keira? Can you give me the extra wire?"

Riku looked at him questioning but Roxas just opened one portal with one hand, and grabbed Sora with the other before disappearing into it, Riku followed and found himself on a hilltop just out of range of the cars.

"What are we doing here?" Riku asked. "Do you think it would be easier for him to find Jak and Daxter if we stand up here?"

"Maybe? I want to test something" Roxas said and placed the shadow on the ground, and gave him the wire he got from Keira earlier.

"Shall we give it a try?" he asked Sora, the shadow nodded enthusiastically, and ran down to the racing spot.

"I don't get it" Riku said.

"Just be quiet and watch okay?" Roxas said.

Riku resisted the urge to hit the nobody in the head and looked down at Sora, who at the moment was only visible as a black spot on the ground.

He would have expected the heartless to run around in circles looking for his target but to Riku's surprise, it looked as though he knew exactly where he was going.

Jak and Daxter's car was easy to spot a short distance away (recognised by Daxter who was currently hanging on to the cannons on the car, trying to hold the broken wire together so the guns worked…occasionally).

"Drive carefully Jak! I'm almost falling of here!" the ottsel yelled.

"Sorry Dax, but as you said to Rayn I'm trying not to get us both killed here" Jak said, slightly annoyed.

"Then try harder!"

Jak sighed, if Daxter hadn't been his best friend he would have thrown him of the car a long time ago.

Daxter climbed up at the cannons get a better view on his surroundings and then he spotted something.

"Jak! Slow down!" he yelled.  
"Do you want to die?" Jak asked.

"No, but the little shadow-guy is coming, and he's got a spare wire!" Daxter said.

Sure enough, having finally caught up with the car Sora now ran behind the car, struggling to reach them.

Jak slowed down and the little heartless quickly jumped aboard the car and gave the wire to Daxter.

"Thank you. You're a real life saver! Just hope I can fix this thing without it blowing up" Daxter said.

Jak cast him a nervous look.

"Kidding! I've seen Keira do this millions of times" Daxter said.

"Oh joy" said Jak, but he didn't seem very convinced.

"Okay, just take this old wire out and plug in the new…don't chew on that one Sora, take the old broken one instead… There, try now Jak" the ottsel said.

Jak pushed the button that fired the gun, just in time as another racer came up behind them; said racer was blown to bits.

"Great job Jak!" Daxter said as Sora jumped up and down in excitement, still on top of the car, rather miraculous he was able to not fall of.

As soon as the guns started working again some of the other racers seemed ready to just give up, and Jak won the race with ease.

"That was a big win for the newcomer my fine-feathered, friend. We're going to have to pay more attention to this boy" G.T Blitz said in the post-race broadcast.

"I've done some digging G-baby, and I've uncovered some new information on the underworld bet" Pecker said. "Someone's manipulating the sport!"

"You know, I've covered this show for _decades_" Blitz said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Do you honestly think you can come on to my show to make me look like a , then you!"

Once again a message appeared on screen that the channel was experiencing technical difficulties.

"Do you think Pecker will die this time?" Daxter said in a hopeful voice.

"That was a great race Jak! Congratulations!" Keira said. "And you did great too Sora" she added, petting the little heartless.

"I'm impressed and surprised; he can hardly follow a conversation so exactly what did you do?" Riku asked Roxas.

"Simple. I just had to give him some directions and tips on the way" Roxas said.

"You mean like telepathy? Cool" Kairi said. "How did find out you could do that?"

"Well, I've been able to send messages to samurai or dusk nobodies before and since Sora's my other half I figured he had to be able to hear it as well" Roxas said as the shadow nodded to confirm it.

"All that is nice and all but I'm still curious as to how this could happen" Rayn said, holding up the broken wire. "Keira, you were in the garage just before the race, did you remember to lock the door afterwards?"

"Of course. There was no one there when I left and all the cars were fine, I checked" Keira said.

"Maybe we have mice in the building or something… no offence Mickey" Cornelius said.

As he said that, Zexion's ear twitched, the cat had apparently been sleeping but now he suddenly jumped up and ran out of the room.

"What's up with him?" Axel asked.

"Let's find out" Kairi said.

They all ran down into the garage where they found Zexion sniffing around.

"Dude, I was joking about the mice, what would they be doing in here anyway? Drink oil?" Cornelius said.

"Not if they're not really normal mice" Zexion said. "There!" he said suddenly bouncing behind a pile of spare parts.

Suddenly 3-4 brown rats ran out from under the car-parts and a scream was heard from behind them, Zexion reappeared, carrying a blonde rat in his mouth, the rat was covering both his eyes.

"Hey! I've seen that rat before" Kairi said. "I saw it on the streets".

"Let me down! I didn't do it, please don't eat me!" the rat yelled.

"Normal rats don't talk do they?" Cornelius asked.

"Well duh. You figured that out all by yourself?" Kate asked.

"That's not a rat" Axel said. "And here I thought Saïx as a puppy was funny, Luxord? Is that you?"

The rat, Luxord, opened his eyes. "Axel? What are you doing here?" he asked.

Zexion dropped him but stepped on his tail to prevent him from escaping.

"We were about to ask you the same question. Rats don't go into garages to search for food" he said. "You sabotaged Jak's car didn't you?"

"So what if I did? That Razor-guy paid lots to prevent him from winning the race" Luxord said. "And since I'm already "blessed" with this useless form I might as well do the best out of the situation".

Jak suddenly grabbed Luxords tail and picked him up.

"So it was you?" he said.

"There there boy, a job's a job right?" Luxord said.

"Is cat-food a job? Cause we may have an opening for that" Daxter added.

"There's no way I'm eating that. Too dirty" Zexion said.

"Ow, that hurt my feelings Zexion…if I had any" Luxord said. "But if you're here, does that mean the rest of the organization is here too?"

"I hope not. How about we just put this one out of its misery? I don't want any more rats on the team" Riku said.

"Don't you think he deserves a second chance?" Kairi asked.

"We gave Xigbar a second chance, no good. I'm not about to make the same mistake again" Riku said.

"Can't we just put him in a cage or something until we find out what to do about him?" Keira suggested.

"You can't just cage a nobody. He'll be out and over the hills in seconds" Axel said.

"What if we made it interesting? We could play a game of cards and if I win you let me go. If I loose….well you can do what you like" Luxord suggested.

"What do you think this is? Yu-Gi-Oh GX?" Riku asked.

"Well I'm not letting anyone harm him" Kairi said and grabbed the rat from Jak. "I know he's been a bad person in the past, but he can change, just look at Axel, Demyx and Zexion".

Riku was about to protest but Kairi just looked at him with the biggest puppy-eyes she could master.

"Okay fine" he sighed. "But if he does anything funny I swear I'll find a cat somewhere that's hungrier than Zexion".

"And that's how the beauty tamed the beast" Axel narrated.

"Shut up, or I can surely find something that will eat you too" Riku.

* * *

**Usagi: Well there you have it. Another random ending….. The team is getting big, too big… and I am considering shortening it. (And don't worry, I'm not planning on murdering anyone)**

**Riku: Damnit!**

**Usagi: as for the Yu-Gi-Oh-refernce there, I had toXD I've always hated the way that show seems to think card games are the answer to everything (this goes for most anime based on games really, Beyblade, B-Daman and probably more (although I have to admit I used to watch Beyblade and enjoyed it…)) GX because that's the only YGO-series I've seen (always found it kind of weird that Norwegian Cartoon Network show YGO GX but never showed the original series. They had it in Shonen Jump and it even came out as graphic novels but it looks like they've been cancelled XD figures…)**

**They are pieces of paper people!**

**Luxord: don't underestimate the powers of the cards!**

**Usagi: you can't beat me! I've got Charizard!**

**Sora: eating paper**

**Usagi: or not… Please review people! **


	24. Fuzzy Visitors

**Usagi: oh gee. It's been a while since this was updated hasn't it? Sorry, I've just got the same excuse as probably half if not more of the writers around this page right now, our mutual enemy, school, has returned. At least now that I have Rabbit the laptop I can bring it to school and if I want to, write some during recess :p which is more than I could do last year…**

**Zakura: the school's PCs suck anyway and there's usually some error with every single one of them.**

**Usagi: corre…how did you know that?**

**Zakura: I used to live there remember? Me and Sasuke were born there too.**

**Usagi: yes but you're not allowed into the computer room.**

**Zakura: … I think Aroma's calling (runs of)**

**Usagi: I thought you didn't like Aroma… Well back to business, in this chapter we'll be taking a break in the JakX-storyline but don't worry, it's for a good cause.**

**Sora: It'd better be!**

**Usagi: yeah… I really want to finish this fanfic too as I already have two sequels planned… **

**Sora: (faints)**

**Usagi: so here's the new chappy, enjoy:**

* * *

** SPOILER ALERT: JAK3  
THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS A HUGE SPOILER FOR THE END OF JAK3.  
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.  
**

* * *

**Chapter 24**

**Fuzzy Visitors**

Later that night a few houses away from the race garage, two dog-like animals were sniffing around in a back alley.

"Dude, why can't we just send the dusks to find him? This is so dull" the biggest one said.

"Have you forgotten what happened the last time we sent dusks to pick up someone? They came back with a bunch of useless photos" said the smallest one. "Smells like he's been here, at least a few days ago. But where is he now?"

"He went this way" said the biggest one. "Along with a few other rats apparently. Dang Saïx, it's true what they say, the domestic dogs really have weaker senses".

"Shut the hell up Xigbar" Saïx growled. "Don't forget we have a job to do."

The wolf and the puppy (who's "puppy-eyes" were currently being used for glaring at the author) walked out of the alley trying their best to stay out of sight of curious bystanders, in case the citizens would think they were strays and take them to a dog-pound.

"Just make sure nr VI doesn't smell us" Saïx reminded Xigbar.

"Zexion has an even better sense of smell than me besides he's more experienced in using it. Thrust me, if Luxord is anywhere near that kitty, he's going to smell us when we approach" Xigbar said. "So you can either prepare for battle or we might as well go home, and then you can tell the superior the mission was a failure".

Saïx just grunted in reply, and started looking up towards the clouded sky.

"Looking for helicopters?" Xigbar asked.

"No, I'm searching for the moon, if this world even has one" the puppy replied.

"It does, but you can't see it. Then again in that body I don't think you'd stand a chance against the keyblades even if this world had 4 of them all full and visible" Xigbar said.

Saïx snorted, but didn't say any more.

"Why did the keybrats even go to this world? You'd think they'd be worried that shadow would get hit by a car or something" Xigbar said.

"It better not, the superior wants that shadow for studies" Saïx said. "It may hold the key to getting…"

"Yeah yeah, the key to getting our hearts back. I heard Xemnas the first 100 times" Xigbar said. "Though I still think that shadow is more likely to help nr XIII get his heart back than anyone else."

"Well if it works for nr XIII it might work for the rest of us as well, at least if we found our heartless counterparts"

"Well I'm not going to fetch the superior's".

Both nobodies shuddered at the thought.

Xemnas's, or Xehanort's heartless was as of yet the only heartless they knew to have kept a human form, not to mention a huge amount of strength, rumours was he might even be stronger than Xemnas, but as the two had never met since separating that fateful day in Radiant Garden which cost Ansem's 6 assistants their hearts, no one knew for sure.

Surely the heartless appeared to be crazier than most fangirls, but that was also one of the reasons why it was extremely dangerous. The Organization had long since decided to ignore it, hoping Sora and Riku could deal with it, which apparently they had. No one had seen or heard from the heartless since the day the Organization fell, whatever happened to it no one knew for sure, Xigbar and Saïx couldn't really care less.

Pushing all thoughts about rapid humanoid heartless aside, the duo continued walking through the streets.

Kras city was a little safer at night, with a bit less people driving around, note there were still people driving around, many of them far crazier than the ones appearing at daylight, but at least there wasn't so many of them.

Occasionally one or two cars were blown up by berserker nobodies who just materialized at random areas around them.

"What happened to keeping a low profile?" Xigbar asked.

"I don't give a damn" Saïx said.

Suddenly Xigbar stopped, and glanced up at the sky.

"What now?" Saïx asked.

"Did you hear something?"

The puppy's ears stood up, and he could hear a low rumbling, coming from above them.

The sound got higher and higher, whatever was making the sound was on its way to Kras, moving fast.

"Dude! Look at that!" Xigbar yelled.

A gigantic golden space ship came zooming down towards the ground, before it hit the ground, it gracefully stabilized, flying just metres above the tallest buildings, and disappeared of somewhere outside the city.

"What was that?" Xigbar asked.

The nobodies weren't the only ones who had spotted the ship.

"Get up! Get up! GET UP!" Tetra yelled, as she was bouncing on Mickey's back.

"Quiet down, will you? We're not all nocturnal you know" Mickey said sleepily.

"Sorry your majesty. But you've got some guests" Tetra said. "A precursor ship just landed right outside of town."

That woke the mouse up.

"Why didn't you just say so?" he said, jumping out of the bed (forgetting all about the chinbit on his back).

"I just did" Tetra groaned from the floor.

Mickey ran down to the race garage only to find all of his friends were already awake…well Donald was lying against one of the cars snoozing but at least he had gotten out of the bed.

"What took you so long?" Axel asked, he was standing on top of a small rodent cage, inside Luxord was desperately chewing the bars. Zexion had picked out the cage, as it was big enough for a rat to stand upright in, but so small that if Luxord tried to use a dark portal; it surrounded the whole cage, moving it as well. So he would still be trapped, only someplace else.

"Sorry you had to wait. Where is the ship?" Mickey asked.

"Apparently just outside the city, but Jak went out to pick up the precursors" Riku said.

"There's more than one? But doesn't his car only have two seats?" Mickey asked.

"Well don't ask me how he's planning to do it" Riku said and shrugged. "I just hope they're as smart as people say they are".

"Hah, I doubt it. Not even Xemnas has been able to figure out a way to fuse a heartless and a nobody without help from Kingdom Hearts" Luxord said. "Though he claims his other might have a few theories…. If you'd like to ask him…"

"Want me to cut that cage open with you inside it?" Riku asked.

"How long does he go without giving out death-threats to anyone?" Luxord whispered to Axel.

"About two minutes. I'd keep my mouth shut if I were you" Axel said. "Though it's not like you can really die as you don't have a life already, you'll just go from being nobody to nothing."

"I can't wait till Jak gets back. Wonder how these precursors really look like" Kairi said.

"Oh one thing is certain, you'll be surprised" Cornelius said, for some reason he glanced over at Axel as he said this.

"What did I do this time?" Axel asked innocently as the door to the garage opened.

"Ah, there they are now" Cornelius said.

Jak walked out of the car and Daxter bounced of the roof, as a small creature suddenly fell out on the other side.

"Goodness Mar, you drive like a maniac" the creature said and got up.

Everyone gazed at it.

"Oh…my…god" Axel said.

"That's what I said too first time I saw them" Jak said casually.

The creature turned out to be a somewhat plump ottsel. Two other slightly skinnier and taller ottsels jumped out too and helped the first one get up.

All three had orange fur like Daxter, with a few spots of brown.

"Are you the precursors?" Riku asked.

"Yes, and I'm getting tired of explaining it. Why didn't we just show them all what we really looked like in the first place?" the first ottsel asked his two friends.

"Well uh…wasn't it something about them not wanting to worship rats?" One of the others said, he was wearing a helmet over his eyes.

The first ottsel smacked him over his head with his staff; his friend didn't seem to react though, thanks to the helmet he was wearing.

"Never mind him, he's an idiot" the first ottsel said. "My name is Luke; these are my brothers, Donny (the one with the helmet) and Sammy, the surfer-freak".

"Hi dudes" Sammy said, waving.

"Er…Okay, nice to meet you all. My name's Mickey Mouse, I'm the one who called on you" Mickey said.

"Dude, is this the one?" Sammy said, poking Sora. "I've never been so close to a heartless before without being attacked. He's soft."

Sora, not liking to be treated like a soft toy, bit his finger.

"OW! And mean" Sammy said.

"Oh yeah, stop poking him" Roxas said.

"You could have said that before dude" Sammy said pouting.

"Well he certainly seems more well-behaved than any regular heartless, it hasn't attacked anyone has it?" Luke asked.

"Not since we caught him at least" Riku said. "And by the way, his name is Sora; he's not a science object or anything".

"Oh...right. Sorry... But that's rather unusual. I always thought heartless were nothing but instincts. Whatever does it eat when it doesn't eat hearts?" the ottsel asked.

"Random food items, ice cream sticks, discarded cigarettes. Whatever he can get his teeth into, like your staff" Roxas said.

"Hey! Let go of that!" Luke said, shaking Sora of his staff. "Well erm… ever since you contacted us I've done a bit of thinking. Like we told you we haven't been able to do all too much research on heartless and it never really occurred to us to figure out a way to get them back, but then we thought about something, which coincidentally exist on this very planet; Light eco".

"Light what?" Riku asked.

"Of course! If that thing...heartless is made from darkness, light eco should be able to fix it!" Daxter said.

"It didn't fix you" Jak reminded him.

"Well I didn't want to be fixed" Daxter muttered.

"Well it's only a theory. It usually has positive effects on most creatures…however…" Luke said.

"Heartless are made from almost pure darkness so the light could in fact kill it" Zexion said.

"Way to spoil good news Fluffy" Axel said, Zexion glared at him.

"No, he's right. That's what bothered me too, maybe we should do more research first" Luke said.

"Maybe we should ask him" Donny said, pointing to the shadow.

Everyone gazed at Sora. Sora… started nibbling on a broken tire (broken since it had bite marks on it…shadow-sized bite marks).

"What do you think Roxas?" Kairi asked.

"Well…first of all I was thinking how on earth did my heartless get so idiotic, secondly well…" Roxas started.

"Ah just give him that eco-thing. If you wanna gain something you've got to gamble" Luxord said.

"Hey Zexy, want roasted rat?" Axel asked.

"Wait a minute… You're a nobody?" Luke asked Roxas.

"Yes, is that a problem?" Roxas asked.

"No no, in fact it's amazing. I never knew nobodies could take human form" Luke said quickly.

"We'll there's not a lot of us, I only know of 14 nobodies that gained human form, including Roxas, Zexion, Demyx and I" Axel said. "And the gambler of fate here" he added, stomping on the rat-cage.

"I've figured it requires a strong heart to create a nobody, but to keep your original forms…if not a bit changed, that's some feat" Luke said. "But back to the original question… if the heartless was strong enough to get a human nobody then I guess a little light eco can't harm much".

"Much?" Kairi asked nervously.

"As I was saying; We could try giving him just a small dose and see what happens. If it gets injured in any way we'll stop. What do you think?" Luke asked.

"As long as you don't hurt him" Kairi said.

"Don't worry little girl, just like a tiny dose of dark eco can't do much harm to a precursor a small dose of light won't be fatal for a creature of darkness" Luke said, in a tone as if it was something everyone should know…but Kairi still stared at him, almost to tears.

"He'll be fine" Zexion translated.

"You sure?" she asked.

"Yes, we are sure. Now will you stop whining?" Zexion asked.

"I'm hungry" Luxord said.

"Well then it's settled then? Where could we find this "light eco"?" Riku asked.

"There's a vent down in Spargus City" Daxter explained. "But I wouldn't recommend jumping straight into it. It could get too much."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Riku said, and ran outside.

"Does he know the way to Spargus from here?" Daxter asked.

"I doubt it" Roxas replied.

* * *

**Usagi: That was all the fun we had for you today.**

**Sora: do I smell hope?**

**Usagi: no. I just haven't cleaned out the rabbit cage yet.**

**Sora: that's not what I meant.**

**Usagi: well you'll just have to wait and see shadow-boy (evillaugh)**

**Roxas: something tells me rabbit pooh is all you smell.**

**Sora: sigh… am I gonna be a shadow for the rest of my life or not?**

**Usagi: Oh no. I have big plans for you (evillaugh again)**

**Sora: rabbit pooh is not all I smell.**

**Usagi: well.. I should explain about the precursors in here as well.**

**They are all three characters from Jak3, (though only appearing briefly) and yes they DO look like that. In the game they were simply known as Ottsel Leader, Ottsel Surfer, and Ottsel Dummy...but I didn't feel like actually calling them that so I made up some names for them...on the spot...so they may not fit very well;**

**Either way, er... please review. Complains at the ottsel names will be burned.  
**

**Axel: burn baby! Burn!  
**


	25. The Fate of the Gambler

**Usagi: hello again people! Seems it finally time for another update of Lost in Darkness…there's a lot of things happening in this chapter, and I should probably warn you, it also includes the very first character death in the fanfic….and probably rather pathetic one at that…but considering the character's current form… I'm not saying more.**

**Zakura: didn't like that character anyway.**

**Usagi: If I say more now I'll probably spoil something, so here's chapter 25!**

**Chapter 25**

**Fate of the gambler**

The two nobody-canines watched as several cars drove out from the garage, heading towards the city outskirts.

"Where are they going this time?" Saïx asked.

"I don't know puppy, let's follow them and find out" Xigbar said, setting of.

"Don't call me puppy" Saïx growled and followed the wolf.

"Would you mind slowing down a little?" Kairi asked, she was sitting in the front seat of Sig's car, next to Sig himself, Riku and Roxas were in the backseat, Sora clinging to Riku's head.

"Oh? Sorry, I forgot you weren't used to driving at such speeds" Sig said and slowed down…a little...it was still a little too fast for Kairi but she was unable to say so as she feared she might throw up if she tried to talk. **(That happens to me sometimes-.- it sucks).**

Luckily for her, Riku's stomach was a bit tougher, and he noticed how pale she was looking.

"It's still a little fast, I think Kairi's getting sick" he said. "And at the same time, I'm not planning to figure out of heartless can throw up or not, especially not considering what he's been eating" he added, and pointed at Sora who once again was hanging on to his head for his bare life.

"You guys wouldn't last a second in a race" Sig said, but slowed down.

Cornelius drove up next to them; Axel was standing on top of his car, obviously enjoying himself, Kate sat next to Cornelius, looking bored.

"Seriously guys, if we were driving much slower we'd be going backwards. Do you want to get to Spargus or not?" he said.

"Weee, if I had a heart I would have loved to feel the wind through my fur like this" Axel cheered.

"It has to be a better way of travelling than this" Kairi sighed, as she was bending over the side of the car.

"Well, we could always…" Axel started but was cut of by Riku.

"We're _not_ using the dark portals" he said.

"Why not?" the fiery ottsel asked.

"Because we're not. Good enough reason for you?" Riku asked.

"You're just jealous because you lost your ability to make them" Roxas mocked.

"I am not" Riku said, but Roxas saw he was turning red.

"You are too" Roxas said.

"I am not!"

"Hey! No fighting in the car cherries!" Sig warned before the two boys flew at each other's throats (again). "Take it when we get there".

"Hey, if you're gonna ask them to stop fighting please make them stop for good" Kairi complained, before leaning out of the window again.

She looked up as he heard a sound from the top of the car, and noticed Axel had somehow managed to jump from Cornelius' car (which was suddenly far ahead) onto Sig's.

"If he does that, that'll be some miracle, got it memorized?" he said.

"I could always beat up you instead" Riku said.

"Ooh, grumpy butt" Axel said mockingly, and sat down on top of the car, appearing to be sunbathing.

It took the group a couple of hours to get from Kras City to Spargus (though Cornelius kept saying it would only have taken them 10 minutes if Sig hadn't stopped all the time because Kairi got car sick, Jak and Daxter, who had been driving with Keira, and Tess, used one hour getting there driving non-stop. Cornelius had mostly been driving in circles.) Mickey, Donald and Goofy had been riding with Rayn, who was the only one who drove at a decent speed without being told to do so.

Ashelin and Torn drove with all 3 precursors+Demyx and Zexion in the back seat (feeling lucky they were all small-sized), while Ashelin had the rat cage with Luxord in on her lap during the trip.

As soon as they had stopped, Kairi quickly ran out of the car and towards some nearby bushes.

"Don't worry kid. You'll get used to it" Cornelius said.

"Well that is reassuring, as I do NOT want to get anywhere near any of those cars again" Kairi said. "I don't care how dangerous it is, I prefer the dark portals".

"See? SEE?" Axel said, nudging Riku's foot. Riku kicked him.

"So where is that light eco vent anyway?" Riku asked.

"It's right this way. Follow me!" Daxter said and bounced of Jak's shoulder before running into the city.

The ottsel led them towards the shore, where, just in the middle of some ruins, there was a vent of some sort, spitting out some kind of shining white liquid.

Sora didn't seem to keen on getting close to the light eco, and hid behind Roxas' back.

"So I take it this is the famous eco went" Riku asked.

"That's the one. Wanna try it out?" Daxter asked.

"I'm not sure if this is such a good idea, he's horrified of it" Kairi said, as she picked the shadow of Roxas' back, before he tried to strangle him.

"Of course he's scared. Heartless are made from pretty much nothing but darkness, so it's only natural they'd be scared of something this pure" Luke the precursor said.

"But don't worry, there's only a 40 chance that he'll die instantly" Donny said.

"Well that's reassuring" Kairi said, and held Sora further away from the vent.

"Look, let's just try a small drop, that can't harm can it?" Riku said.

"Well we've never tested…"  
"Shut up will you?" Riku said, as Luke looked rather baffled of being interrupted.

"Fine. But if it looks like he's in pain we'll stop" Kairi said.

"Don't worry. If he feels any discomfort I'll know straight away" Roxas said.

"Then let's get going" Mickey said and pulled out a teaspoon from his pocket.

"You carry a spoon on your pocket?" Riku asked.

"What? You never know when you're going to need a spoon" Mickey said, and put the spoon into the vent, when he pulled it out again, a small drop of the light eco had landed on it. "See? Bet you're glad I had that spoon with me now huh Riku?"

"Just get on with it already" Riku sighed.

"Right, hold him still Kairi" Mickey said, and approached the heartless, who was still clinging to Kairi. "Open wide Sora".

Whether he didn't understand the sentence or just wanted to be difficult, Sora kept his mouth shut tighter than ever, so Mickey just dripped some of the light substance on his skin, which was obviously enough. The heartless wriggled itself out of Kairi's grip, and ran of in the opposite direction, right into Ashelin who lost Luxord's rat cage, and then ran of to find a hiding place.

"You were supposed to hold him still" Riku said.

"Well I didn't want him to get hurt" Kairi apologized.

"Never mind that, he'll be back, we have a bigger problem" Roxas said, and pointed in direction of the rat-cage, which was lying on a rock, broken. Luxord was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh snap" Riku said.

Meanwhile, in another part of the city a certain pair of canines was sniffing around. (At the moment they came out into the wasteland outside Kras they had simply dark portalled into the nearest city. Which coincidentally was Spargus),

"They're definitely here somewhere" Xigbar said. "Yet I don't see why anyone would wanna go to this ruin".

"Just concentrate on finding nr X will you? He must be here some…" Saïx said but was cut of as something yellow suddenly came running towards them.

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!" the creature yelled before disappearing again.

"…where" Saïx finished. "What was that ab…"

Once again he was cut of as a larger black creature appeared, following the rat.

"I think it's a cat" Xigbar said.

Saïx barked loudly at the creature making it stop.

It was indeed a small female cat, which obviously had been trhough a lot (not surprisingly, judging by where it lived) as she only had one ear, and was missing some fur on her tail.

She was also remarkably small. Even a bit smaller than Saïx, who was obviously more muscular.

"Stay away kitty, that's a member of the Organization XIII you're chasing" Saïx growled.

The cat hissed, unimpressed by the puppy's threats.

"You're not gonna let a little _cat_ speak to you in that way are you nr VII?" Xigbar teased. "You're a dog after all".

"I don't need you to tell me what to do nr II" Saïx said and charged at the kitty.

The cat however was too fast for him; she scratched his nose and ran of again, in the direction Luxord had just ran.

"After it Saïx!" Xigbar yelled as he ran after the cat.

Saïx was left behind a little baffled, after the fall he had landed upside down, and his nose felt like it was burning. "I'll get your for that one kitty" he growled as he got to his feet.

Luxord could not remember having been in bigger troubles yet, and from a cat of all things!

He had a lucky escape when Sora's panic attack lead to his cage being broken, and as the sly rodent he was, he quickly crawled himself out and ran of before anyone had time to notice the cage had broken of.

His plan was to find a suitable back alley to hide in till he felt well enough to dark portal out of there, as he wasn't feeling too good after the car-ride.

However he soon realised he had picked the wrong alley.

That is where he had met the black female cat. The feline looked as if she hadn't had a good meal in days, and when a fat rat suddenly walked right into her alley...

The arrival of Xigbar and Saïx may have slowed down the cat a little bit, but sadly it was not interested in picking a fight with a dog and a wolf, and was now back at Luxord's heals.

"Oh god, please save me and I'll never gamble again" Luxord said. "Except perhaps on public holidays… and Tuesdays…and any day ending with the letter Y".

Too busy making promises he could never in his non-life ever hold, Luxord didn't see where he was going and suddenly crashed, realising till his horror that he had ran straight into a dead-end.

"Just perfect…first I'm beaten by some kid with a giant KEY then some lousy cat" he muttered, as he saw his life flash before his eyes for the third time. **(First time was when he lost his heart, second when he died in KH2)**

Xigbar and Saïx followed the cat's scent into a back alley, where Xigbar simply grabbed her tail and threw her out on the streets.

"Stay clear nr II, this one's mine" Saïx said.

He charged at the stray cat and hit her with his paw, the cat fell over by the pressure, but was back on her feet very quickly and bit Saïx in his ear, Saïx returned the favour by biting the cats tail, and for a while they ran around in circles like that.

"This is better than a cat-fight" Xigbar said.

He watched the two fight for a short while, Saïx was undoubtedly stronger than the undernourished cat, but she was fast and more agile. So it didn't seem like any of them were winning.

But Xiggy…aren't you forgetting something?

"Oh…right. Luxord" Xigbar said, and walked into the back alley, leaving the other two to make up in their own violent way.

He could smell the rat in the alley, and there were signs of struggle, but Xigbar quickly figured they had been too late.

Unfortunately for the cat, she had been unable to benefit from the hunt, as nobodies usually faded right back into darkness when they died.

There was no trace of him anywhere, except for the smell, which was not noticeable by human noses (except if they were Zexion that is). He could not have used a portal, as Xigbar noticed he was looking dizzy when he ran from the cat, and using a portal when you aren't feeling well could be dangerous, as it was difficult to pinpoint where you were going, you could end up inside a volcano or something.

He walked out of the alley and found Saïx still fighting the cat. Both seemed to have gotten a few hits, but nothing lethal.

"Dude. Luxord's dead. Let's just leave this hole" Xigbar said.

"Not…before…I've…killed…this…damn…cat!" Saïx said.

Xigbar sighed. "Look, I know you're annoyed that you've been transformed into a close-to-harmless puppy but taking your anger out on this cat won't change anything….in fact, we're nobodies. We can't even FEEL anger!" he said.

However, Xigbar's rant fell on deaf ears.

Meanwhile, not too far away, another escapee had been found.

As Roxas had predicted, Sora came running back the moment the crew started calling for him, but finding Luxord was an entirely different matter.

"Give it up; we're never going to find him. He's probably disappeared of to another world already" Donald said.

"He can't use dark portals while he's carsick. That could end in disaster, and Luxord knows that" Zexion said. "No… he's around here somewhere…or was…"

"Make up your mind. Is he here or is he not?" Riku asked.

Zexion stood up on his hind legs and sniffed the air.

"Almost sure now…the scent as faded, however…" the cat took of before anyone had time to ask what he was sure of, towards the direction where Xigbar and Saïx were battling the cat.

"What on earth are you doing?" he asked, the moment he found them.

"You ask him" Xigbar said, nodding towards the cloud of dust that was Saïx and the cat.

Riku and the others caught up with them.

"You. I should have known" Riku said, and pulled his Way to Dawn.

"Always so hostile. Why can't we all just be friends?" Xigbar said.

"You must be joking…"

"I am, come on puppy" Xigbar said and practically pulled Saïx out, before disappearing into a portal.

"A wolf and a puppy wouldn't stand a chance against all of us" Cornelius said. "Speaking of fights…"

"Oh poor little thing" Kairi said, and picked up the now badly injured cat.

"Guess now we know what happened to Luxord…gee, that is ironic" Axel smirked.

"That's one less problem to worry about" Riku muttered. "Besides we won't have to ruin Zexion's appetite."  
"Haha, very funny" Zexion said. "Leave that cat alone, it's probably just a stray."

"But we can't just leave it. It's injured. Did the mean old doggy hurt you?" Kairi said to the cat.

"Oh great. She's talking baby-talk to random animals again" Riku sighed.

"You mean she's done that before?" Axel asked.

"She does that every time she finds an animal in distress. I've lost count of how many times she's been told by her mother that she can't keep every animal she takes home with her" Riku said. "I'm just glad we're not on Destiny Islands right now or she'd obviously ask…"

"Can we keep her?"

Riku stared at Kairi, still holding the cat. Roxas and Axel broke out into laughter.

"I know how that feels buddy" Cornelius said, Kate just giggled.

"We can't just take a cat from another world with us in the gummi ship Kairi" Riku tried.

"Why not?" Kairi asked.

Riku didn't have an answer, luckily for him, Donald did.

"That'd be meddling!" he said.

"It's just a cat" Kairi said.

"Unimportant!" the duck said. "That cat belongs in this world so it stays in this world. We can't just go ahead take animals from lots of different worlds and put them in another. That'll cause chaos!"  
"But you let the nobodies come along".

"Well…they were from other worlds originally".

"I'm sure no one will miss this one cat, besides, I think she likes me, mom can't say no to such a face can she?" Kairi said.

"That's what you said about all the others too" Riku said.

"Sora's mom said she wanted a cat once" Kairi said, looking at Roxas for support.  
"We still can't just take it away like that. Besides it's missing an ear" Roxas said.

"Guys, you're just being silly. Obviously the cat needs medical attention and so it shall get" Mickey said.

"But your majesty…" Donald started.

"One small cat can't harm, besides, most people already know about the other worlds anyway, and I'm pretty sure this cat won't tell anyone" Mickey explained. "I'll take it back to Disney Castle. We have great vets there."

"And it won't be a problem that some of the inhabitants are mice?" Axel asked.

The others just glared at him.

"Sorry…couldn't resist" Axel snickered.

"That's a great idea King Mickey! Thank you" Kairi said.

"Aren't you all forgetting about something?" Riku asked, pointing to the shadow hiding behind his feet.

"Don't worry. I'm sure the three of you would be perfectly able to travel the worlds on your own" Mickey said.

"Sora could drive the gummi ship pretty well, ahyuck, so then Roxas should be able to as well right?" Goofy said.

"Better than him at least" Roxas said, pointing at Sora, who simply snickered.

"Besides, I'm sure the queen would appreciate if you stay with her now, in her condition and all" Goofy said.

"What condition?" Kairi asked.

"Oh that. It's nothing serious really" Mickey said, blushing.

"Is she sick?" Riku asked.

"No no. nothing like that… it's just ehm…" Mickey said.

"Wait a minute…don't tell me Queen Minnie is…expecting?" Riku asked, smirking.

"Expecting what? Why would she need his help if she was expecting a package?" Demyx asked.

"Not a package you idiot!" Axel said. "He means she's expecting a little prince…or princess".

Demyx stared at him with a confused look for a short while, and then it hit him. "Ooooh… I knew that."

"Yeah, you're right. Minnie's having a baby. Shouldn't be too long now" Mickey said.

"Well if you're going to become a daddy you should be with her, I know I would want the father of my children around when I give birth" Kairi said.

"Sure you can manage on your own?" Mickey asked.

"Of course, you said so yourself, and frankly you've kept Minnie waiting long enough loverboy" Riku said.

Sora and Roxas nodded, almost simultaneously.

"Well alright then. Donald, Goofy, are you coming too?" Mickey said.

"I guess Daisy would like some company too" Donald said. "And I won't have to get beaten up for being away for too long again…"

"Then it's settled. We'll drop you guys and the cat of at Disney castle and then it's of for the next big adventure" Riku said. It was no doubt in the world he was enjoying this.

**Usagi: Well this was probably upsetting for Luxord-fans…especially if you wanted a more spectacular death but he's a rat. Cats eat rats. **

**Also this chapter turned 6 pages long which is quite and achievement for me! I got to do several things I've wanted to do for some time.**

**Solve the "Luxord-problem". Never knew quite what to do about that guy…. It was either kill him now or later. **

**Figured out if light eco affects heartless….it didn't do much... But with the current length of the chapter you'll have to wait till next chapter to figure out if it actually did make a difference or not…**

**Shorten the party. Seriously, there's the original KH-party of Sora, Donald and Goofy+Riku, King Mickey, Kairi and the nobodies. That's one heck of a party. A friend of mine suggested the Disney characters going away so I found an excuse for that. The first one was lame, so I added a baby mouse into the mix:3 Honestly…why do both Donald and Mickey, despite having a girlfriend neither ever seem to get a kid…only nephews.**

**Introduce a random cat…who coincidentally got a part in both Dork Period, Kingdom Dorks and Heart Wars…all with different background stories.**

**Finish this chapter before dinner…okay I failed.**

**Please review! While I go eat dinnerXD**


	26. World of Demons

**Usagi: I am back you guys! Got some major inspiration yesterday…after going to a second-hand-game store…**

**Zakura: what? You bought yet another copy of Kingdom Hearts?  
Usagi: why would I need that? No, I bought Disgaea! I've wanted that game for ages but since it's so old it's hard to come by, so I figured I'd buy the new PSP-version when it comes out. But yesterday I found a used copy very cheaply, so I decided to buy it, and it's awesome!**

**I have wanted to do a Disgaea-world in LiD for a long time (I've known about the game for some time…plus I've seen the anime) and having finally gotten the game I figured it was the perfect time.**

**I got rather tired of the JakX part…so I dropped it, sorry. But rewriting the JakX-storyline just got too boring…might go back there later if enough readers want to…or not. **

**But anyway, here comes a new chapter…and it's got demons in it! Yay!**

* * *

**WARNING: **

**The following chapters contain spoilers for the game and anime Disgaea. Hour of Darkness.**

* * *

**Chapter 26**

**World of Demons**

The gang once again found themselves in the gummi ship, heading towards Disney Castle.

The cat was sleeping peacefully on Mickey's lap, while Kairi was holding Sora.

"Well that was a waste of time, it's the last time I'll ever listen to any of your ideas" Riku said to Axel, who was sitting in the same seat as Demyx as they figured the safety belts were too wide for each of them alone to sit safely.

"Well you didn't exactly have any better ideas yourself, got it memorized?" Axel said.

"I wouldn't say it was useless" Kairi said. "I think it actually helped, a little."

"How? He's still a heartless as far as I can see" Riku said.

"Yes, but he seems to have changed a little, it almost looks as if he's gotten brighter in colour, also he's changed from blue to brown" Kairi said.

"Looks black to me".

"When you're an artist you spot colour changes easier".

"What?"

"Namine."

"Right."  
"You're right Kairi, he does seem a little different" Roxas said. "Perhaps he's feeling a bit different to, eyh Sora?"

Sora nodded, and cuddled up to Kairi.

Mickey smiled.

"Seems like there's hope after all. At least that makes me feel better about leaving you" he said, petting the cat. "But what about this little guy? He needs a name, right?"  
"It's a she" Kairi corrected him.

"Right… she needs a name then. Any suggestions?" Mickey asked.

"What about One-ear. That's simple enough right? Axel asked.

"A bit too simple maybe" Kairi snickered.

"Anything but "Fluffy" I'd say" Zexion said. "That name still gives me the creeps."

"What about Annie?" Axel suggested. Zexion glared at him.

"I didn't think nobodies go the "creeps" Riku said.

"Let's just say I really don't like the names okay?" Zexion said. "Seeing as I can't really hate it…"

"What about Trixi?" Roxas suggested. "Just the first name that came to mind."

"Well I like it" Kairi said.

"Trixi it is then" Mickey said. "Now I just hope Pluto won't try to chase her of."

"I just hope she doesn't try to eat _us_" Chip said nervously.

"I'm sticking with Pluto for sure, while that cat is around" Dale announced.

---

A few hours later the gang said goodbye to Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Daisy, the chipmunks and a rather large Queen Minnie at Disney Castle, Jiminy was still in the gummi ship, and not too few of them yelped as the Gummi ship exited the castle, by not flying forwards, but falling down a hatch in the Disney Castle basement, and popped out on the other side of the small planet.

"Who the heck made that garage?" Axel asked, as he held on to his chair for balance. "Would it be too much to ask that the ship actually leave trhough the same door we came in?"  
"Hey, it's Disney Castle. They have a door the size of Kingdom Hearts despite the fact that it's inhabited mostly by mice" Riku said. "And not to mention the broomsticks that do the cleaning."

"Well what else would you expect a broomstick to do?" Kairi asked.

"I dunno. It's the mere fact that they're walking that freaks me out" Riku said.

"So, does anyone have any idea on where to go next?" Roxas asked, he had taken Donald's place behind the wheel.

"Axel's not allowed to suggest anything" Riku said just as the ottsel was opening his mouth.

"Why not?" Axel asked.

"Can we go to Atlantica?" Demyx asked.

"Why on earth should we go there? All they've got is singing and…water" Axel said. "Though I can see perfectly well why you'd want to go, can't we just drop him of there and be rid of him?"

"We're not getting rid of anyone" Kairi said, both Axel and Riku groaned, as Sora jumped up at the window and stared towards a world in the distance.

"What is that?" Roxas asked.

Jiminy opened his memo. "I have heard of this world; let me see what is written…oh wow".

"Something wrong?" Kairi asked.

"No no, just rather remarkable. The world's called "The Netherworld". It is inhabited by demons, but that's not the most amazing thing, it appears it is naturally connected to two other worlds" Jiminy said.

"Demons? Are they bad?" Kairi asked nervously.

"I vote for staying way clear" Demyx said.

"Sora wants to go there" Roxas said.

"Sora wants to eat ice cream sticks" Demyx reminded him. "Forgive me if I don't trust that shadow's judgement…and stop that, the puppy-look doesn't work with giant yellow eyes" he added as Sora was staring at him.

"If it's a world inhabited by demons I can see why the heartless would want to go there" Riku said. "Demons have much darkness in their heart which is what attracts the heartless."

"Also: the more darkness, the stronger the heartless are" Demyx reminded him. "Can you IMAGINE how strong the heartless of a demon must be?"

"It can't be much worse than Xehanort's heartless can it?" Roxas asked.

"Roxas, we're talking about DEMONS here" Demyx said.

"Yes?"

"Pretty much smaller devils".

"Ok?"

"Look up evil in the dictionary and there's a picture of a demon."

"Can someone shut him up?"

Riku was already prepared, he had taken some bandages out of the first-aid kit and tied them up around Demyx' mouth. "Now he's silent, and Roxas?"

"What is it now?" Roxas asked.

"Don't agree with me again, it freaks me out" Riku said.

"Er…guys, I don't want to interrupt this nearly-friendly conversation but…where did Sora go?" Kairi asked.

The boys looked up for a second, and sure enough, the heartless was gone.

"Aw man, he's run of" Roxas said.

"Could he have gone to the netherworld?" Axel asked, Demyx was freaking out, still wearing the bandages.

"Well, I guess we have no other choice than to go there now" Riku said. "Sure we can't drop of Demyx some…"

"No" Kairi said.

---

The netherworld was far from a cheerful place. Particularly not the place Sora had landed.

He seemed to have landed in the middle of a battle-field, as several heartless were attacking a band of strange creatures.

"I can't remember having invited any of you onto our patch freaks" one of the creatures said, might they be one of those "demons" Jiminy was talking about?

A rapid heartless snarled and charged at the demons, and bit the foot of one of them, a large dragon.

"Get of me you little mutt" the dragon said and kicked the rapid into a nearby rock. The heartless quickly evaporated.

Sora figured this was not a good place to be at the moment. The heartless were all above his level, a collection of neoshadows, rapids and gargoyles, and the demons looked vicious too.

Without the keyblade he had no chance standing up to them.

He tried to crawl of unseen…

"Hey!"

…and didn't look where he was going, so he crashed into another dragon. "Do you want some scars too?"

Sora yelped, and quickly disappeared into the ground and disappeared of the battle scene.

After crawling underground for a while, only visible as a black spot, he figured it was safe to surface again.

He found himself near a gigantic black castle; he could sense many strong demons and heartless inside.

_What have I gotten myself into now?_ He thought to himself. This was obviously not one of his brighter ideas…then again; he hadn't had any bright ideas since turning into a shadow.

He backed away from the castle, but suddenly hit something.

_Crap. Haven't I done this before?_ He thought, and looked up; right into the face of a behemoth heartless…and it looked hungry.

Sora was not ready to become behemoth-snacks, so he ran for it again, but the heartless followed him.

_Oh man, where's Roxas when I need him? _

But Roxas didn't come; Sora tripped and landed face down.

He could faintly hear a battle cry above, and then he heard a voice.

"Oh you poor thing. Are you alright?"

What the? Heartless didn't talk (well except for Xehanort); Sora knew that better than anyone.

He looked up and saw it wasn't a heartless talking, but a girl.

The girl had long blonde hair and a white dress, if anything she didn't look like a demon, except for the red eyes, red bat-wings and the demon-tail.

But she wasn't evil, Sora couldn't feel much darkness from her, and she did save him from the behemoth.

"A little guy like you shouldn't be out here on your own, come on, I'll take you inside" the girl said and picked him up.

---

About the same time Sora's friends had gotten themselves into trouble as well.

"Look, we've got no business with this "overlord" of yours, we're just looking for a friend" Riku said to the horde of demons that had attacked.

"Too bad, cause we do, and you guys look like good practice" said a humanoid demon, who appeared to be the leader.

"We don't have time for this" Roxas sighed.

"Looks like we don't have much choice" Riku said and summoned the Way to Dawn. "Besides, this should only take 5 minutes."

"I wished I still had the dancer nobodies here" Demyx sighed. Kairi had finally removed the bandages from his mouth, on the promise he'd stop whining.

"Still had? Have you actually tried summoning them?" Axel asked.

"Well I…hey…no I haven't" Demyx said. "So…er… should I?"

"Go ahead, we don't have all day" Riku said as he knocked away a demon that had attacked him.

"Ok…Don't beat me up if this fails" Demyx said and closed his eyes, within seconds a dozen of dancer nobodies materialized around the demons.

"What the hell are these freaks supposed to look like? Have we ended up in the middle of a ballet?" one of the demons asked.

"IT WORKED! Okay guys! Give 'em in!" Demyx yelled.

One of the dancers grabbed the demon that had called them freaks by the hand, and threw him up into the air, spun him around for a few seconds before tossing him into a wall.

"Sure am glad they are on our side" Riku said and turned to the leader of the demons. "Still want to fight?"

The demon growled and pulled out a large sword. "You're going down human" he said and attacked.

Riku blocked him and pushed him out of the way, behind him Roxas was fighting two demons at once.

Kairi was fighting a demon that resembled a log or something, until he caught fire.

"Thanks Axel" she said.

"You're welcome. Seems Xemnas has taken the assassin nobodies from me but I've still got some firepower" Axel said, with a glance at Demyx.

The beaver had his sitar out, and had now sent his water clones to fight alongside the dancers.

"You guys aren't completely ordinary humans are you?" the demon asked.

"I'd rather not be compared to the guy playing the sitar but no" Riku said. "Ready to give up?"

The demon was about to say no, but then he noticed he was surrounded by the dancer nobodies, and the last of his helpers was thrown of a cliff.

"Fine, I give up, but don't get too cocky, just because you were able to beat me doesn't mean you are ready to face the Overlord" he said.

"Okay, first of all, we have no intention of fighting any demon overlord, who is he anyway?" Riku asked.

"He's the boss of this Netherworld, duh. What planet are you from?" the demon said.

"Destiny Islands. Don't think you've heard of it" Riku said. The demon's expression proved he hadn't.

"Well… the Overlord is an annoying little brat, but he's not to be underestimated. Neither are his vassals. Stay clear of the girl with the spiky hair, she's dangerous, known to beat up her own prinnies" the demon said. "If you know what's best for you stay clear, unless you feel really lucky". After that story, the demon left.

"What the heck is a "prinny"?" Riku asked, automatically looking at Jiminy, who was riding Zexion's back, the cat seemed to have avoided the battle.

"Don't ask me, I've never been to this world before" the cricket apologized.

"Well I'm sure if we don't bother this Overlord he won't bother us. Let's just go find Sora" Kairi said.

* * *

**Usagi: I like demons…**

**Zakura: and fairies, dragons and other strange mythical creatures…**

**Usagi: pretty much. Can't believe I haven't tried this game sooner… but then again I did spend a long time deciding to buy Kingdom Hearts too…I'm so slow... **

**Zakura: well at least since you waited so long you got them cheaper.**

**Usagi: good point. Please review everyone, and maybe I'll tell you what a prinny is!**

**Sora: Big mystery alright…**

**Prinny: Dood!**


	27. Meeting the Overlord

**Usagi: Hello! And welcome back to another exiting instalment…or not so exiting…this chapter was made much to introduce Laharl; he's a funny fellow, known from Disgaea Hour of Darkness, and the current leader of the Netherworld. (No, I haven't gotten that far in Disgaea yet:3 but I've seen the anime…and a few endings on YouTube… cause there's more than one)**

**Zakura: and the prinnies**

**Usagi: yes… the prinnies. Curious things indeed. Currently there's only one prinny in the fic that has a name, I called him General, cause that is the name of my strongest prinny on Disgaea at the moment. And they do say Dood all the time, don't ask me what it means or why they say it, they just do.**

* * *

**Chapter 27**

**Meeting the Overlord**

* * *

Netherworld: Overlord's castle.

Back with Sora, the demon girl had carried him into the castle, and was now running around in the hallways.

"LAHARL! ETNA! COME OUT! I'VE GOT SOMETHING TO SHOW YOU!" she yelled.

Another demon entered the room she was in; it looked like a blue stuffed penguin with purple batwings growing out of its back.

"What are you yelling about, dood?" he asked.

"Oh? I'm sorry, have you seen Laharl and Etna anywhere?" the girl asked.

"Not today Flonne, but I'm sure Laharl won't he happy about you running around the hallways screaming, dood" the penguin-demon said.

The girl, Flonne, giggled. "I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" she asked.

"No, but I'd rather not be you if you woke up Laharl-sama" the penguin said and left.

"Hm…maybe that's where he is" Flonne said to herself.

She ran into another room, in the middle stood a coffin. Putting Sora on the floor she pushed the lid open.

Sora peeked into the coffin, and noticed a boy was in it, he didn't seem dead, just sleeping…or…he WAS sleeping.

"Flonne…how many times have I told you NOT TO WAKE ME UP WHEN I'M SLEEPING?" the boy yelled.

"Well…if you weren't sleeping how am I supposed to wake you up?" Flonne asked innocently. "And you're scaring my new friend."

Just then the demon noticed Sora, who was shivering in a corner; this demon was scary, completely unlike Flonne.

"Did you wake me up…for that?" he asked.

"I found him outside, one if these new big monsters were attacking him" Flonne said, hugging the little shadow. "You don't mind if I keep him, do you Laharl?"

Laharl sighed. "I don't care. Just keep him out of my room" he said. "Now where are those prinnies? I'm hungry".

---

Meanwhile, a walking distance from the castle…

"Would it be too much to ask for to go five steps without being attacked?" Riku asked.

"Well this is a demon-world after all" Kairi said and shrugged.

"Not to mention the heartless, this is not a very nice place" Demyx added.

"I'm used to that so no problems. Sure this is the right way Roxas?" Riku asked.

"Pretty sure, he's passed this way" Roxas said.

"How about we look over there? That's a cool castle" Axel said, pointing over to the castle in question.

"That place is huge. Do you think that is where that Overlord-guy lives?" Kairi asked.

"Sure looks like it. Care to find out if he's really as strong as people claim?" Riku asked teasingly.

"NO WAY! We came here to look for Sora didn't we? Not get us all killed?" Demyx said.

"Looking for someone? Dood?" a new voice said.

The group turned around and saw a penguin demon standing behind them.

"Er…. Who are you?" Riku asked.

"Name's General. I work in that castle, dood" said the penguin.

"Say, you wouldn't happen to have seen a small dark brown shadow heartless around have you?" Kairi asked. "Similar to those little critters walking around."

"Well. Dood. The shadows have been here for years, but Flonne came into the castle with a little brown one just recently. I think it's still in the castle with her. Dood" said General. "Now if you'll excuse me. I need to go buy some groceries. Dood."

Then the penguin left them alone.

"Well, looks like we've got to check out the castle now" Riku said.

"Why was he saying "dood" all the time?" Axel asked.

"Why are you always saying "Got it Memorized" all the time?" Riku asked.

"That's totally different, got it memorized?" Axel said.

"Riiight."

So they all went towards the castle, Riku grabbed Demyx and carried him by the tail (kicking and screaming all the way).

Eventually they got to the door, which was immensely huge. (Cause all castles need unnecessary huge doors…especially castles where there are possibly giant demons living).

"So…do we knock? Or is there a doorbell anywhere?" Roxas asked.

"Who cares? Let's just burn the door down" Axel said.

"No need. There is a doorbell over here" Kairi said and pressed a small button next to the door.

"Spoilsport" Axel muttered.

Within shortly another penguin, pretty alike the first one, showed up in the door.

"What do you want? Dood?" he asked.

"Do all of you guys say "dood" all the time?" Axel asked.

"Yes dood. Was that all or did you have anything important to ask, dood?" the penguin asked, sounding a bit annoyed.

"Sorry about my friend, we were just wondering if you've seen a little shadow heartless around here?" Kairi asked.

The penguin stared at them, and then looked around at the dozens of shadows creeping around everywhere.

"No…not those. We're looking for one in particular" Kairi said.

"All of them look the same too me, dood" the penguin said.

Suddenly he was pushed out of the way by a young girl.

"Hi. Sorry for listening, but I couldn't help but notice you were looking for a shadow? Is it a pet or something?" she asked.

"Well… not exactly, but he's a friend of ours" Riku said. "So if you've seen one that looks more lost than usual and with a strange fancy for ice cream sticks…"

"But I have seen a shadow, just saved him from one of those big nasty heartless. He was all by himself so I figured I'd take him in" the girl said. "But don't worry, he's just fine, come on in".

So the crew followed the girl inside the building, on the way they all presented themselves, and the girl told them her name was Flonne, and that she was a fallen angel, which was probably why she looked far nicer than most other demons. Many demons didn't know how to love, she explained, but she had made it her goal to teach them, but associating with demons got her into trouble somehow, and she was thrown out of her old homeworld, Celestia, where the angels lived.

"Many angels think all demons are evil" she told them. "And I used to think so too, and then I met Laharl. He was a little rude at first, but I could tell there was some good in him."

"Are there any more demons living in this castle?" Kairi asked.

"Of course, and heartless too. Laharl decided he'd try to make them his vassals, though I'm a little worried, ever since they came some of the other demons appeared to have vanished" Flonnne said. "Now there's Laharl, Etna and I, a few other demons I'm not sure of the names of and the Prinny Squad of course."

"What's a Prinny Squad?" Roxas asked.

"The little penguins running around here, they're prinnies. They're actually the souls of human sinners brought back to life to atone for their sins. Etna hired them to do chores and fighting, once they've saved up enough money they can go to the red moon and be reborn" Flonne explained.

"Why do they keep saying Dood?" Axel asked.

Before Flonne had time to answer, a certain shadow bounced out of a nearby door and ran towards them, quickly jumping onto Roxas' head.

A boy came out after him, holding a half-eaten chicken-wing in his hand.

"And stay out! Don't you dare try stealing the food of the great overlord ever again!" he yelled, and then he saw Flonne.

"Flonne, that little shadow you invited just… who are they?" he asked.

"Oh, these are my new friends. Guys, meet Laharl" Flonne said.

"That's Overlord Laharl for you. Aren't you humans? What are you doing in the Netherworld?" the boy, Laharl asked.

"We were just looking for this guy really" Roxas said, picking Sora of his head.

"Good. Get him out of my sight. I don't see why anyone would want such a useless shadow but that will be your problem" Laharl said.

"Useless? This guy happens to be the master of the keyblade. He saved dozens of worlds from becoming completely destroyed by the heartless" Riku said. "Ironically he later got turned into one…"  
"That little shadow saved the world? That I have problems believing" Laharl said.

"But it's true. He's fought lots of monsters" Kairi said.

"He fought me too. And that hurt" Demyx said.

"Yes, cause you certainly do look intimidating" Laharl said to the beaver. "Now please go and let me eat in peace, without any stupid shadow interrupting."

"Hey, I can show you around in the castle if you like" Flonne said.

"I just told them to leave" Laharl added, as he was on his way back to the dining room.

"This way, let me show you the hall of the dark assembly" said the fallen angel, completely ignoring Laharl's protests.

"That girl" Laharl said annoyed, as the group left him. "But at least they took the shadow with them". He turned to go back to the dining room, only to see another group of heartless fighting over the food he had left; they all looked up when he entered.

"…GET OUT OF THE DINING ROOM NOW!" he yelled, and pulled out a sword that was almost bigger than himself.

The heartless yelped, and ran/flew out of the room, whatever suited the individual heartless best.

-.-

Just a few minutes earlier, a short distance away from the castle, a small creature, resembling a small blonde fox was crawling his way towards the castle, in front of him bounced a pink rabbit of all things.

"Come on old man. Do you want the demons to eat you?" the rabbit teased.

"Shut up traitor. I've been doing nothing but running away from these barbaric creature for days and I'm hungry, I can't just bend over and eat grass like you do" the fox said.

"And that is why you should always eat your vegetables" said the rabbit. "But no, you had to be reborn as a predator".

"It's not like I had a freaking choice in the matter!" the fox complained but the rabbit hushed him. "What now?"

"Look who's just arrived" said the rabbit, and pointed down to the castle, where the keybladers and their friends had just arrived.

"Is that Riku? And nr XIII? What are they doing here?" the fox asked.  
"Well you're the scientist" the rabbit shrugged.

"Oh Shut up before I decide to at YOU" the fox growled.

* * *

**Usagi: That was all the fun we had for you tonight. Some making fun of Laharl and two new characters have been introduced. Who can they be? (and Rilaveke is not allowed to answer that) **

**The answer to that very important question comes in the next chapter of Kingdom Dorks!**

**Zakura: …Why Kingdom Dorks?**

**Usagi: I'm joking.**

**Please review, then the answer will come in the next chapter of LiD. **


	28. The Fox and the Rabbit

**Usagi: We are back! With more foxes, more bunnies and more prinnies!**

**Zakura: and apart from that, does anything actually happen?**

**Usagi: …yes it does. AND I HATE THE NEW LOGIN-SYSTEM!**

**Zakura: Joy! (Starts ripping appart the image verification) **

**Usagi: Anyways... This chapter introduces the last two members of Organization XIII! **

**Sora: Larxene and Roxas?**

**Usagi: Roxas was the first one to appear, and Larxene has appeared too, geez! And I thought you were getting smarter.**

**Sora: and who's fault is that? (Pouts)**

**Usagi: aw but you're still cute (Pets)**

**Sora: MAKE HER STOP!**

**Usagi: yeah…so here's the next chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 28**

**The Fox and the Rabbit**

* * *

"And this is the hospital wing, there's always the occasional demon who wants to take over as Overlord, so they're always busy healing those of Laharl's vassals that have gotten injured in the battles" Flonne explained to the group, as they entered a room filled with beds many of them were occupied by demons of various forms, some looked almost human, others looked more like animals, and there were a few prinnies there too.

"So even demons have hospitals?" Demyx asked silently.

"Well of course we do. We're not all evil you know" Flonne said. "There used to be lots more, but since the heartless appeared more and more demons have just disappeared."

"No wonder. Heartless practically live of the darkness in people's hearts, demons have lots, I bed the missing demons have lost their hearts to heartless and become heartless themselves" Zexion said.

"Really? That is just awful. Why would heartless do such mean things?" Flonne said.

"Because they're heartless?" Riku suggested.

"Surely that can't mean all heartless are evil? What about the one on your head?" Flonne asked.

"He's a special case. But the fact is that heartless are made from the darkness in people's hearts, and constantly search other hearts" Riku said.

"Why?"

"Well their own hearts are trapped, and heartless aren't exactly smart. They just do what their instincts tell them to" Zexion said. "They may occasionally follow orders from other people with very strong hearts though, however it isn't wise to try to command too large of a heartless army in the long run, they can easily turn on you, and your heart could be lost to the darkness".

"That's nonsense" a new voice said.

Laharl had entered the room, obviously done eating, followed by another girl, with red spiky hair, a pair of demon-wings and a tail.

"If you loose your heart to the heartless that just proves how pathetic you are. That rule may well qualify to humans or extremely weak demons but I, the great overlord Laharl would never sink to that level" the young overlord said.

"Oh I don't know about that" the girl next to him said. "I heard some rumours they made short process of the Bijuu's king".

Laharl started laughing loudly, startling Sora so he fell of Riku's head.

"Rumours and truth are two different things Etna" Laharl said. "Either way that fox was a wimp already. He always thought he was sooo great and all for defeating a snake by tiring it out after 100 years. Nah, good riddance I'd say".

"It's no laughing matter, if you don't watch yourself you could end up going the same way. If you side with the heartless, they'll swallow your heart" Riku said. "And stop grinning you two" he added to Sora and Roxas who were in fact grinning at him.

Laharl laughed again, sounding exactly the same as the last time.

Now Riku had only heard this laugh twice but he already hated it.

"That may be true for you and your pathetic little friend" Laharl said, pointing towards Sora. "But I can handle these critters".

"If you say so, but don't say we didn't warn you" Riku said.

--

Vexen was not happy. Technically he never was, seeing as he was a nobody; however at this moment he knew that HAD he had a heart, he'd be pissed, so he acted that way, as he crawled his way down the hillside, on short polar-fox feet.

"This is all your fault, nr XI" he growled at the pink rabbit jumping in front of him.

"Me? I fail to see how this is my fault?" The rabbit, Marluxia asked.

"If it hadn't been for your "genius" plans, we would never had gotten killed and returned as little fuzzballs" Vexen growled at him.

"Oh come on, if Axel hadn't killed you Sora would, or Riku, or that slightly disturbed replica of yours, I never liked him anyway…" Marluxia said.

"There was nothing wrong with that replica, before your girlfriend decided to play around with it" Vexen said.

"Relax old man. Whether you like it or not you're stuck with me for the time being unless you want…look out!" Marluxia yelled, Vexen rolled out of the way just as a demon dropped by, after having been pushed of the cliff above them.

"As I was saying, since you're so tired right now you can't even see above these rocks you should be happy to have a cute bouncy little rabbit around to keep a look out" Marluxia said.

"If you came closer I'd be even happier to have a rabbit around" Vexen said.

"Yeah right old man" Marluxia said and jumped of.

"WHY WON'T ANYONE SHOW ME SOME RESPECT AROUND HERE?!" Vexen yelled.

--

Axel's ears shot up as he left the castle, and he looked up at the hillside. He and his friends were on their way back to the gummi ship, accompanied by Flonne and Etna, since they knew the area.

"Something wrong?" Kairi asked.

"I thought I heard a voice" Axel said.

"Well there's lots of demons around, and constant fighting so it's not odd if you heard a scream" Etna said. "I'd be more surprised if you DIDN'T hear one"

"Yeah, but something about this voice sounded familiar" Axel said.

Kairi looked back at Roxas. "You don't think…?"

"Maybe" Roxas said.

"Maybe what?" Flonne asked.

"Only one way to find that out" said Riku, and ran towards the hillside.

The keybladers, nobodies and demons went towards the hills, and looked around.

"I don't see anything…other than this knocked-out lion-thing" Kairi said.

"It's a manticore" Flonne said helpfully.

"Oh, they're here alright" Zexion said. "I can smell them".

"So where are they?" Riku asked.

"Uhm... Riku, I think you should move" Zexion said.

"Why? Think the mountain is going to fall down kitty-cat?" Riku asked, just before he got a pink rabbit in his head. Soon a blonde polar-fox came sliding down from the hill too, and stopped right before Riku's feet (who dropped the rabbit on him).

"Oh my! Are they alright?" Flonne asked.

"Get of my head you f---ing fluffball!" the fox growled.

"Yeah, he's fine" Zexion asked. "Couldn't care less about the other one" he added, and knocked Marluxia of Vexen's head.

"Zexion? Is that you?" Vexen said, and looked at his old friend. "You look fl…"

"Shut the hell up Vexen" Zexion said.

"Why? I was only going to say flu…"

"I said zip it."

Axel and Demyx were trying to wake up the now unconscious Marluxia, Demyx threw water at him, Axel was kicking him.

"Rise and shine sunshine! Wake up and smell the flowers" Axel said. "You wouldn't want me to start using my element too do you?"

Marluxia opened his eyes. "Oh please no" he said and shut them again.

"Doesn't that rabbit like you very much?" Flonne asked.

"Nah…I kind of ruined his plans of world domination once and for some reason he wasn't too happy about that" Axel shrugged.

"Oh you're in more trouble than you thought bunny" Riku said. "Still…a pink rabbit… what the heck was the author thinking?"

"It's not my fault Usagi has a rabbit fetish...but stop breaking the fourth wall that only leads to trouble" Marluxia complained. "You can't honestly kill someone this cute can you?"

"Aw, you really are adorable" Flonne said before Riku had time to answer, and the fallen angel picked up Marluxia. "You poor thing, it must have hurt falling down that cliff, are you alright?"

"Er…yeah…the fur kind of eased the fall" Marluxia said.

"Well you should at least let a doctor look at you, hey prinnies!" Flonne said.

Three prinnies quickly came running, Vexen looked up questioningly.

"Funny…those penguins look kind of familiar" he said.

"You think? I thought so too, like I had seen them in another life or something" Zexion said.

"Curious…perhaps…nah, that's just idiotic" Vexen said.

"This rabbit needs urgent medical treatment, could you please get him back to the castle?" Flonne asked, handing Marluxia over to the prinnies.

"Alright Flonne, we'll get right to it" the prinny said and ran of.

Etna glared at the fallen angel.

"Why do they listen to you so quickly?" she asked. "I usually have to threaten them for them to even appear."

"Oh? I just ask them nicely" Flonne said. "And what about you? Are you okay?" she asked Vexen.

"I'm fine, but I'm starving" Vexen complained.

"Well no problem. We've got lots of food back at the castle, I'm sure Laharl wouldn't mind sharing" Flonne said.

"Excuse me? Are we thinking about the same demon here?" Etna asked.

"Right this way" Flonne said happily, ignoring Etna.

Back at the castle, Vexen told the group how he ended up in the Netherworld with only Marluxia for company.

"Just after Axel here killed me (glares at Axel) I suddenly woke up in this god-forsaken place, surviving here wasn't very easy, looking at my current state, I was having problems holding my shield up" Vexen said, while occasionally pausing to take a large bite out of the steak the prinnies had prepared. "Then one day I came across Marluxia, at first I just wanted to kill him, but he ensured me both of us would have a bigger chance of survival if we stuck together, and I hate to admit it, but he was right. At least he was able to stand up on two legs, so he could hold his weapon."

"So why did he need you?" Zexion asked.

Vexen swallowed another large chunk of meat before continuing. "It's the fur" he said. "He was reborn as an angora rabbit, so his fur grows constantly and gets entangled anywhere, he can't cut it himself so I had to bite his fur of sometimes."

"The chilly academic as a hair dresser, now that I would love to see" Axel chuckled.

"Oh shut up. At least I was able to pull it out by the root if I wanted to. Marluxia hates it as much as I do" Vexen added. "You wouldn't last a week out there".

"Oh yeah? Do you think Spargus City was any better?" Axel asked.

"We just saved a cat in Spargus who was smaller than you, and she had lived there all her life without any special powers" Roxas commented.

"And I thought you were my friend, whose side are you on?" Axel asked, clutching his heart (or the area where the heart was supposed to be) dramatically.

"You're weird" Roxas said.

"Did it take you this long to notice that?" Riku asked.

"Well you don't have to worry about that anymore. I'll help both you and your friend with anything you might need" Flonne said.

"No more animals!" Laharl said, poking his head in trhough the door. "If you're going to bring more random people into the castle why can't you at least get someone strong?"

"If only I had my old body…then these demons would be easy" Vexen muttered.

"Why don't you just come with us? Maybe we can find a way to change you back?" Kairi suggested.

"Hello, we don't need any more random nobodies, besides we need to concentrate on helping Sora" Riku added, and pointed to the shadow who was now steeling food of Vexen's plate.

That got the fox's attention, and he looked at Sora with a puzzled expression. "Sora turned into a heartless again?" he asked.

"Yes, how did you notice? Was it the antennas?" Riku asked sarcastically.

"Fascinating" Vexen said jumping up on the table. "I never knew heartless ate other things than hearts, also he looks somewhat different form other shadows, and it's not quite the same colour".

Kairi sent Riku a look that said "told you so".

Vexen picked up a notebook and a pencil that was coincidentally placed on the table. "I need to take notes of this" he said, and started writing something down. Sora crawled over to his side and looked curiously on the paper.

"What? Don't tell me you can read as well?" Vexen asked, showing the paper to the shadow, obviously he didn't think it was a big deal… Sora ate it.

"Hey! Give that back!" Vexen yelled and snatched the paper out of his mouth. Unfortunately it was completely ruined already. "Ach! No respect! Not even from a heartless!" he sighed, and threw the piece of paper into a nearby paper bin whilst Axel, Riku and Roxas broke out in laughter, even Kairi was chuckling slightly.

"Take it as a hint" Roxas said, once he had caught his breath again. "Sora is a heartless, but not a science project".

"Oh come on, shadows are about the stupidest things that ever walked any plaOUCH!" Vexen started but was cut of as Sora bit his tail.

"He was…until just recently" Roxas said.

"Really? How is that possible? This sounds interesting" Vexen said, the pain in his tail as apparently completely forgotten.

"Is the heartless smarter than you? No big shock" said another voice; Marluxia entered the room, nibbling on a carrot. How's' that for stereotypical rabbit-behaviour?** (Zakura: I hate you, rabbits don't only eat carrots you know? (Nibbles a banana))**

"I never said that pinky. Besides, weren't you injured?" Vexen asked.

"I'm fine, I don't want to stay in a hospital bed all day" Marluxia said.

"DOOD! There you are!" said a voice.

"Uh-oh".

A prinny came running and picked Marluxia up (he's about a third their size anyway). "You are not fit to be running around young man, dood! Get back in bed or we won't give you any more carrots" he said and carried the rabbit out.

"I didn't even want carrots! Why can't I have some steak too? AND STOP TREATING ME LIKE A KID!" Marluxia yelled, as he was kicking the demon penguin.

Everyone else just stared at the door for a moment, before everyone, even Laharl, broke out into laughter.

"Okay I admit. That was funny, maybe we could keep him as a clown or something" said the young overlord.

"Oh my, I'd hate locking him up but if he keeps running of like that I may have to put him in a cage!" Flonne said.

"Do it please" Vexen said.

"Yes, that would be so awesome" Axel said, still snickering.

"You enjoy watching people suffer don't you?" Riku asked.

"Only people I don't like" Axel said.

The random conversation was suddenly cut of as a large roar was heard outside.

"What was that?" Kairi asked.

"I don't know, I've never heard that sound before" Etna said.

"Sounded like something very big and scary" Flonne added shivering.

Suddenly Marluxia returned in the door, holding his pink scythe in one hand (apparently he had knocked out the prinny trying to bring him back to the hospital wing). "Hey Vexen, I think your friend has returned".

"Vexen has a friend?" Axel asked, for once Vexen didn't snap at him.

"Oh not now!" he just said.

* * *

**Usagi: oh goody! I got to include one of my fanarts into this chapter (And in case you missed it, I'm talking about the very first picture I submitted to DA of Vexen the polar fox, which featured Sora eating his notes.)**

**Sora: paper doesn't taste half as good as ice cream sticks...**

**Vexen: then stick to the ice cream sticks and stop eating my notes!**

**Usagi: and who could this mysterious monster be? Oh yes, I had to add a cliffhanger because I thought the chapter was pretty boring . I am so evil.**

**Everyone: WE KNOW!**

**Usagi: What have I ever done to you?**

**Sora: you turned me into a heartless.**

**Riku: you turned me into an ugly emperor in HW.**

**Kairi: you won't let me GET a part in HW.**

**Vexen: you're disrespectful.**

**Demyx: you scare me.**

**Marluxia: you made me a pink bunny.**

**Lexaeus: you keep ignoring me.**

**Xemnas: you turned me into a…what the heck did you turn me into??**

**Cid: you made fun of my food.**

**Kyuubi: you let heartless take me.**

**Zakura: you let the vet do horrible things to me, now I can never become a mother. T.T**

**Zexion: you created her (points to Annie)**

**Annie: FLUFFY! (Is hit by a buss).**

**Usagi: okay…Sora, I'll make it up to you later. Riku; you still look normal in HW, it's just your character who is ugly. Kairi; it's not my fault the only other female character is dead. Vexen; name one who isn't. Demyx; sorry little one (pets). Marluxia; but pink bunnies are so cute! Xemnas; well it beats Pink Bunny (Marluxia: eyh!) Cid; Riku did it. Kyuubi; what are you even doing in this fanfic? Zakura; be happy, unneutered female rabbits have a much higher risk of getting uterine cancer. Zexion; problem solved.**

**Zexion: yay!**

**Lexaeus: you're still evil. **

**Usagi: why aren't Axel and Roxas talking?**

**Axel: I can't come up with anything…**

**Roxas: you made me a main character in two fanfics already over Sora, what do I have to complain about?**

**Usagi: I feel so loved…even though neither of you have hearts so you can't love me…oh well...I feel...not so hated. Please review!**


	29. A Demon with No Heart

**Usagi: welcome back. How long has it been? Like…2 days?**

**Zakura: do you sleep?**

**Usagi: not in the weekends. And heck, Netherworld is fun to write! Though I am a little upset that I only got one review for the last chapter… at least that one was positive… Was it hat boring? **

**Sora: Oh just be glad my fangirls don't come murder you in your sleep one day.**

**Usagi: D: Hey… I like you, I just happen to love torturing characters I like.**

**Sora: you sadistic little…**

**Usagi: Uh-oh! Better cut you of there before you offend someone (like me) Here's the next chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 29**

**A Demon with No Heart.**

* * *

The gang went out on the bridge outside the castle along with Vexen and a few of the demons, Marluxia had argued his way into coming along too, yet Flonne insisted on carrying him.

"What kind of creature is this friend of yours? It sounded very big" Flonne asked Vexen.

"He's not my friend, just a very annoying demon" Vexen said. "As for size…well…"

Suddenly the roar was heard again, closer this time.  
"Whatever it is, seems like we're going to find out" Etna said.

"Oh great, more demons" Demyx said, and hid behind Riku's feet.

However the creature that came running down the bridge was neither big nor very terrifying, at least not by demon-standards.

It was probably about the size of a big dog, in fact it looked rather dog-like too, or should I say fox-like? It had a pure white fur, long furry ears and several long tails.

It stopped right in front of our heroes, and barked.

"Is that it? That's the creature that's been making all the noise?" Riku asked.

"He's got a big voice for being so small" Kairi commented.

"He's got big _teeth_ for being so small" Vexen added.

"Well he doesn't scare me, get of my doorstep foxy" Laharl said and lashed out at the fox with his giant sword.

The fox jumped up into the air, so that Laharl's sword nearly missed one of its many tails.

Etna moved forward too, and suddenly gazed at the tails. "Uh-oh" she said suddenly.

"So it's fast" Laharl said. "No big deal".

"That's not all prince, have you noticed the tails?" Etna said.

"Not that hard to notice, there are quite a lot" Laharl said.

"Nine to be exact" Etna said.

"Why? Something special about that?" Roxas asked.

"Demon foxes are born with one tail, but grow one extra every 1000 years" Etna said. "However they never get more than nine, but once they have reached this level, they have nearly unlimited power. The strongest, king of the bijuu, Kyuubi no Youkou, once fought the great snake Yamata no Orochi, the second strongest bijuu, they fought for 100 years, until Orochi was exhausted. Kyuubi however was still fit for battle".

"Not too fit if it got beaten by the heartless" Laharl snorted, and lashed out for the fox again, this time the fox didn't jump away but rather just grabbed it, and in the process it managed to toss the young overlord backwards.

"Laharl! Are you okay" Flonne asked.  
"Of course I am! That didn't even hurt" Laharl said and got to his feet again, and looked at his sword, only to notice something was different… the edge of the sword, where the fox had bit, was covered in ice.

"Ice? But I thought demon foxes used to be of fire element…then again I have never seen a white one before either" Etna said.

Sora, who was sitting on his nobody's head, suddenly perched his antennas, and started poking Roxas' head to get his attention.

"Oh, you don't say" Roxas said.

"Is that little thing talking to you?" Laharl asked.

"Yes, and I've figured out why that fox is so different" Roxas said. "You mentioned the Kyuubi was attacked by heartless didn't you? Well, I think this white fox is his nobody".

The demons all looked completely clueless, but the keybladers and the other nobodies looked at him in surprise.

"Are you sure about that?" Riku asked.

"Ask your best friend here, he's the one who suggested it" Roxas said. "And I think as a heartless, he should know."

"Oh perfect, if it wasn't bad enough for it to be a demon fox, it's a demon fox without a heart!" Demyx said, and started backing away from the fox.

"What is a nobody?" Flonne asked.

"One who's lost their heart to the heartless" Zexion said. "If you loose your heart to the darkness, you turn into a heartless, but ever so often the body and soul stays behind and forms a new being, a nobody, such as Roxas, Axel, Vexen, Marluxia, Demyx and myself. Unlike the heartless we nobodies are usually somewhat smarter, however because we don't have hearts, we don't have feelings".

"That must be awful!" Flonne said.

"But it does make sense. Nobodies don't always look completely like their original selves. If this Kyuubi turned into a heartless, it is possible that the nobody turned into a different colour and got a different element" Vexen said.

"Also the fact that it doesn't really attack, unless Laharl attacks it" Kairi added, noting that the fox had just been standing there staring at them the whole time, ever since Laharl stopped charging at it.

"Huh…well what do you know... it doesn't seem to be very hostile then" Vexen said.

"You're not mean are you? Just a little confused" Kairi said, and bent over to pet the fox. The fox stayed motionless, didn't show any signs of aggression or happiness. "See? He's friendly when you're friendly to it".

"That one may not be mean but I'd rather not meet its heartless" Demyx said, he was still backing away from it.

"He needs a name don't you think? We can't just call him "it" all the time" Kairi said.

"What about looser?" Laharl asked.

"Why not just go the "normal" way when it comes to naming nobodies? Take its original name, mix it up and add an X" Vexen suggested.

"Foxx" Marluxia suggested.

"That's the worst anagram ever" Axel said. "Heck its not even an angram…"

"Its real name is Kyuubi" Etna said, just to be helpful. "So it should be an anagram of that."

Vexen seemed to be thinking over this for a few minutes.

"Buxyuki" he said at last.

"Not bad" Kairi said. "It even has the word Yuki in it, snow, it fits him."

"You're not going to bring it home and ask your mom if you can keep it are you?" Riku teased. "A cat is one thing, but a nine-tailed demon fox?"  
"A heartless nine-tailed demon fox" Demyx added, he seemed to have gathered up the courage to come closer to the fox again, but was still hiding behind Riku's feet.

"I feel kind of sorry for it" Flonne said. "I can't imagine how it must be living without a heart. Can you do anything to help him?"

"If we did know a way then we wouldn't be followed around by this shadow-heartless and four nobodies" Riku said.

"Xemnas always said he knew of a way to get our hearts back, but frankly I think he was just after getting more power for himself" Zexion said.

"Why sure, that's why I should have been the leader instead" Marluxia said.

"And you think YOU could do better? What do you know about hearts anyway?" Vexen asked.

"Oh that was harsh" Marluxia said. "Just a question, if you were able to create a human clone WITH a heart why don't you just clone one for yourself?"

"That shows how much you know" Vexen sighed. "Heart transplants aren't THAT easy, besides fake hearts aren't always much better than no heart at all."

"You can say that again, that replica was a nutcase" Riku said.

Vexen glared at Riku, and the demons just looked more confused.

They gazed at Riku and Vexen, then at Roxas.

"Don't look at me. I have no idea what they are talking about" Roxas said.

On his head, Sora shrugged.

"You're lucky" Kairi said. "Namine still remembers him. He was a nutcase."

"Is everyone done making fun of my replica now or shall we figure out what to do about this fox?" Vexen asked.

"Take him home?" Kairi suggested.

"No shit" Riku said. "Say what you like, even if your mother was the biggest animal lover on the planet, she WON'T let you keep a nine-tailed demon fox".

"A heartless nine-tailed demon fox" Demyx added again.

"Yes, we know Demyx" Riku said.

"Well I'm not keeping it. If the beaver is right and that thing DOES have a heartless somewhere I'd rather take that one" Laharl said.

"That fox might get useful if I'm going to take on Xemnas" Marluxia said, and wiggled his way out of Flonne's grip, and bounced over towards the fox. "What do you say Buxy? Wanna join my rebellion?"

The fox started sniffing him eagerly.

"Hey! I think he likes me" Marluxia said.

"Sure he does, he's a fox, you're a rabbit" Vexen added, just as he said that, Buxyuki snapped at Marluxia and the rabbit jumped back into Flonne's arms. "He's nuts! Keep him away from me!" Marluxia said, as Flonne tried to keep the eager fox away.

"Like I said, he's a fox moron, and knock that of" Vexen said.

Buxyuki stopped attacking, and looked at Vexen.

"Hey! He listened to you" Kairi said.

"Figured as much, on the mental plan he doesn't appear to be much more intelligent than the lesser nobodies, like dusks and samurai. And we're both foxes and ice-element after all" Vexen said. "Still, even demon foxes eat rabbits Marluxia."

"And NOW he says that" Marluxia muttered.

"I thought that was obvious really…"  
"Good, then you can look after Buxi…whatever. We've spent enough time in this world anyway; maybe we should just get going?" Riku asked.

"I guess we should" Kairi said, before turning to Vexen. "I don't think there's enough room on the gummi ship, but will the three of you be okay?"

"Wow Kai, I never thought I'd heard that from you" Riku said, Kairi ignored him.

"Well if I had known exactly where in the universe we are I could just use a dark portal to leave" Vexen said. "But I've never been to this world before".

"I'm not sure if we should tell you, if you go, what's to stop you from rejoining the organization and come after us again?" Riku asked.

"I don't think Xemnas would even WANT me back" Marluxia said. "And I don't want to be under him again either… I'm sure Larxene would agree with me, though if Xemnas is as strong as you say, the two of us probably can't take him out alone…but maybe…"

"We're not helping you out in your little rebellion fuzzball, forget it" Riku said. "I want the Organization dead. Again. Under new management or not."

"Well it was worth a try… But at least, we could help out if it means creating some chaos for them" Marluxia said.

"Sounds fair, what about your Foxy?" Riku asked.

"What good will it do to return to the Organization now? I'd rather find my own way to get my heart back" Vexen said. "And if Xemnas tries something…well, we could find out just how strong this demon fox really is without his heart".

"I don't know…can we trust them?" Riku asked.

"Right up there, fourth star to the left of the moon, there's Radiant Garden, you can find your way elsewhere from there can't you?" Zexion asked, before Riku had time to complain at anything.

"I'm sure we can, come on Bux" Vexen said, opened a dark portal and disappeared into it.

"Well it's been real fun, but I got to go" Marluxia said, and vanished the same way as Vexen.

"How did they do that?" Larharl asked.

"I don't think I should tell you… But I guess this is goodbye" Riku said.

"I hope things work out for you, you'll come back to visit sometime right?" Flonne asked.

"Why sure. When we get Sora's heart back you should meet him, I'm sure you'll make good friends" Kairi said.

"After he tried to steal my food? I doubt" Laharl said, glaring at the shadow.

"Er…yeah. I'll remind him to pay you back for that" Kairi said, laughing.

"Tell him he owes me 100 HL" Laharl said.

"I will" Kairi said. "How much is 100 HL in Munny?" she whispered to Riku.

"How the heck should I know?" Riku whispered back.

"Like the bunny said, it's been fun. I would sure love to come back here one day" Axel said.

"I don't. Letsgoletsgoletsgo!" Demyx said. "This place is giving me the creeps."

"We've been here for hours already and NOW you're getting the creeps?" Riku teased. "Do nobodies even get "the creeps"?"

"I don't care. I wanna get of this world now!" Demyx said.

"Fine, lets just get back to the gummi ship before Demyx has a nervous breakdown" Kairi laughed.

"Why? That could be fun to watch" Axel said.

"I heard that" Demyx said, he was already halfway across the bridge.

"Wait up! There are still demons out there you know" Roxas shouted.

Within no time, Demyx came running back, and climbed up at the shoulder of the closest person he could find, which happened to be Kairi.

"Let's just go" he said.

And so they said their goodbyes and left the overlord's castle, unaware that they were being watched.

Up on the hillside where Marluxia and Vexen had previously climbed/fallen down, stood a young man, who was watching the keybladers.

"What a complete waste of time. Why would that little want to get his heart back anyway? He doesn't know how lucky he is" he said. "Don't you agree?"

Next to him, a large black dog-like creature growled. Its eyes were yellow; it had long fuzzy ears and nine massive tails.

"Yeah, you're right Kyuubi. Maybe if that keyblader does get his heart back, we should pay them a visit, and then that stupid little beaver will know who's the RIGHT guy for the job" the man said, and laughed.

* * *

**Usagi: cliffie…or is it? Who could this mysterious character be? Will that be revealed in the next chapter? … Most likely not (evil laugh) and if you think you know who it is, shut up. **

**Sora: you bastard.**

**Usagi: what do you care? He's got nothing to do with you.**

**Sora: then why is he even IN the fanfic? Who is he anyway?**

**Usagi: I am not telling! You'll find out…eventually…**

**And yay! I managed to sneak in Buxyuki in the fanfic XD **

**He's another one of my more random ideas… "born" during a random RP, such as my even more random characters ChibiCloud and the Ienzo-replica, known from Dork period.**

**Zakura: which no one bothers reading since it's just 100 chapters of pure nonsense.**

**Usagi: …anyhow! Buxyuki was based of Kyuubi, as he appears in the anime Naruto, however he has really nothing to do with the ninja. The story Etna tells about Yamata no Orochi and Kyuubi comes from an ancient Japanese legend, I read that on the internet. XD And since both are demons, it made sense if they were to appear in the Netherworld… **

**Zakura: are there any rabbits among those biju?**

**Usagi: …no. It's a shark (or a turtle according to the Naruto-manga for some reason), a cat, a lizard-thing, a dog, a badger, a tanuki (racoon-dog), a weasel, a snake and my personal favourite, the strongest of them all, the nine-tailed demon fox.**

**Zakura: stupid fox…**

**Usagi: Well I guess that was all you needed to know about Kyuubi, and all I will reveal about this mysterious stranger for now… I don't really know what world to visit next XD So if you have a tip, do tell ;D (Though…hopefully there won't be much more left of this fanfic….)**

**Sora: HURRAY!**

**Usagi: then I can start the sequel!**

**Sora: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!...I won't be a heartless in it will I?**

**Usagi: for the last time…No. **

**Sora: phew.**

**Usagi: but I don't think you should thank me yet…**

**Sora: D:**

**Mysterious stranger: Will I get to appear?**

**Usagi: ….why would I bother introducing you if I wasn't going to bring you back later?**

**Mysterious stranger: Well you do seem to like planning needlessly far ahead…**

**Sora: why did you even introduce him if you're not gonna say who he is?**

**Usagi: Because I am evil! And I felt like explaining a little about what happend to the Kyuubi.**

**Sora: that didn't explain much... **

**Usagi: please review! And if you want to know more about LiD2: Darkness of the Heart, go to my profile. There are all the info I want to reveal for now. If you want to know anything about LiD3: Heir of the Keyblade…you could also go to my profile, but don't expect too much. XD **


	30. Trouble at Radiant Garden

**Usagi: have you missed me?**

**Sora: NO!**

**Usagi:…oh…too bad your opinion doesn't count.**

**Sora: (grumblegrumble)**

**Usagi: well yeah. Organization XIII hasn't made much of an appearance lately so I figured I'd give you a "status-report". And yeah, Axel, Demyx, Roxas and Zexion can no longer control the lesser nobodies, which for Demyx (and probably Zexion too, you never see him use them) will come in effect from this chapter on.**

**Demyx: aw…**

**Axel: what are you complaining about? You still have those water-clones of yours right?**

**Demyx: yeah but they suck at dancing.**

**Axel: k…**

**Usagi: And by the way, I just wanted to add a little thing on the "mysterious stranger" from the last chapter. He's not a canon character, that goes for other fandoms as well, so it's not Naruto or anything related to that. He's an OC...not my OC though...and currently he's only appeared in one other fanfic, but I won't say which. You'll have to figure out for yourself...in the sequel.**

**Before that, here's the new chapter! **

* * *

**Chapter 30**

**Trouble at Radiant Garden**

* * *

"Those blasted keybladers" Xemnas growled. 

Despite the fact that Sora's friends hadn't yet killed any of his subordinates this time (except for Luxord but that was unintentional) they had still managed to create even more chaos within the Organization's ranks than before.

Axel and Roxas had already left the Organization once before, though he was more surprised over Zexion's betrayal. Though as he thought about it, it wasn't probably that surprising, since the princess from Radiant Garden was on their team.

Demyx had always been a coward, and it wasn't too surprising he'd grasp the first chance of joining another group.

But now he had learned from his spies around the universe (mostly dusks and other lesser nobodies) that Nrs IV an XI had been found. After hearing this, Larxene had disappeared, probably to rejoin the traitor Marluxia, Vexen had vanished too, and Xemnas suspected he too had betrayed them.

"Those ungrateful bastards" Xemnas said. "Without me they'd be nothing, yet they see fit to leave at the first chance".

"Rest assured, they will receive the ultimate punishment if I get my hands on them" Saïx said.

Xemnas turned around, and gazed at the husky-lab-mix puppy. "Don't get this the wrong way…but I'm not sure you're the right guy for that job".

Saïx barked, but since he was till in a puppy's body, it didn't sound very threatening. "At least I still have the berserker nobodies at my side!" he said. "I guess you made sure to take away control over the dancers from nr IX."

"Yes. Nr VIII and XIII have already lost control over their lesser nobodies after leaving the first time, but sadly I forgot IX still controlled the dancers. That has been dealt with, also Nrs IV, VI, XI and XII can no longer control the dusks and creepers if they should ever try" Xemnas said.

"The once so great Organization has really shrunk hasn't it?" Xigbar said. "From thirteen to five in just a bit over a year. Must be a new record."

"There was an old record?" Xaldin asked.

"Well…no. But you know what I mean" Xigbar said.

"Why don't you two go do something useful instead of just joking around?" Xemnas asked.

"I got rid of the wizard didn't I?" Xigbar said. "Old Yen Sid isn't much help for anyone now. Not much more than the "great" keyblade master Sora."

"Except that Sora still has his friends AND his nobody to help" Xemnas said. "And they were annoying enough when they were one…"

"Well what is the problem? The shadow eats just about anything he can get into his mouth, just leave some rat poison near him and he'll be out in no time" Xigbar said.

"Rat poison won't work on shadows you idiot" Xemnas said.

"Oh right…I forgot about the little experiments you did in the past" Xigbar said. "Now what was it again; what shadows can and can't eat by Xehanort".

"Thank you nr II. That was all" Xemnas growled, as Saïx cast him a strange look, he was the only one among the nobodies in the room who hadn't once been Ansem's apprentice.

"By the way…is it just me or are there less dusks here now than there was before you sent them of to the netherworld?" Lexaeus asked, since he hadn't had any lines this entire chapter… he felt like reminding the author that he still existed.

Xemnas gazed at the dusks.

"Hm… you're right…that is kind of odd" he said.

---

Meanwhile somewhere else in the universe, our heroes were busy doing what they did best.

"Halloween Town!"  
"Atlantica!"

"Halloween Town!"  
"Atlantica!"

"Halloween Town!"  
"Atlantica!"

"Halloween Town!"  
"Atlantica!"

"Will you two shut the heck up? I'm trying to take a nap!"

Arguing…

"Axel, Demyx, shut up for two minutes will yah? We're not going to any of those worlds" Riku said.

The ottsel and the beaver stared at him, while Zexion sighed in relief and once again curled up in his chair. "Whyyyy?" the two nobodies asked.

"We need a plan before moving on, and not just go visit random planets, that ain't helping anyone" Riku said.

"It worked for Sora" Roxas added.

"Shut up. I'm taking this ship back to Radiant Garden, maybe Leon and the others have been able to come up with anything while we were gone" Riku said.

"Good idea. I would love to sleep in a real bed for once" Kairi said. "No offence to the ones who built this gummi ship, but even the chairs are softer than the mattresses".

"Sometimes it's okay to be a cat" Zexion said, and Kairi could swear she heard him purr.

Riku steered the gummi ship towards Radiant Garden, ever since they left Radiant Garden he had finally learned how to drive it without crashing, and crashed next to Merlin's house…

"O…k… So landing isn't as easy as it looks" Riku said, as the nobodies (who were too small to wear seatbelts) got up. Sora had once again latched himself onto Roxas' head.

"Nice of you to drop by, did you have a nice trip?" Cid asked, as they exited the gummi ship.

"Oh it was okay. But I think Riku needs some more driving lessons" Roxas said.

"Quiet you. Cid, I think the Highwind needs some minor repairs" Riku said. "And…er, could you make the landing process a bit easier?" He added so low no one else could hear.

"I'll see what I can do" Cid said and walked into the gummi ship, as the others went into Merlin's house.

Inside they saw Merlin, reading a book, Cloud was standing by the door, Leon was on the computer and Aerith and Yuffie were…gossiping by the looks of it, since they kept giggling.

"Did you crash the gummi ship again?" Cloud asked.

"No. We just had a little bumpy landing" Riku said annoyed. "Find out anything useful?"

"Oh, I found a spell that can turn a rat yellow!" Merlin said.

Everyone else just gazed at him.

"Erm… I think he might be getting a bit senile. And he's been reading that book too much" Leon said.

Everyone gazed at Merlin's book, the cover read "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone".

"Anyway I was able to link together this computer with the one in Ansem's study, but I haven't figured out anything new yet" Leon said. "I found some files we haven't checked yet, but they're password protected and I can't figure it out".

"Can't Tron help?" Roxas asked.

"Sorry. I don't have access to all the passwords" a voice from the computer said.

"Mind if I tried?" Zexion asked. "I was once one of Ansem's apprentices you know."

"Suit yourself" Leon said and moved out of the way, so the tiny cat could jump up on the chair.

But not before he had gotten up, he noticed a black and white blur, and found himself back on the floor.

"What the heck is this?" he yelled.

"Oh…sorry about that" Leon said and picked up the black and white cat.

"Hey, it's Trixi" Kairi said, and picked the cat out of Leon's hands. "How have you been doing girl?"

"Mickey took her to the vet but brought her back here for recovery. Apparently the queen was too paranoid to keep it around the baby" Leon explained.

"So they've had the baby now?" Kairi asked, sounding exited.

"They did! And he's so cute!" Yuffie said. "They gave us some pictures, look!"

She picked up a photo that was lying on Merlin's desk and gave it to Kairi. It showed a tiny baby mouse, all furless.

"Why is it naked? I thought mice were furry?" Axel said, climbing on to Kairi's shoulder to have a closer look.

"Well duh, all mice are born furless" Yuffie said and rolled her eyes.

"Don't act so cocky, you didn't know before the king told you either" Aerith reminded her.

"So, what's his name?" Kairi said. "Okay some of you better get of cause this is getting heavy!" She said to Demyx, Axel and Sora, who were now sitting on each of her shoulders and Sora was on her head, add Trixi whom she was still holding in her left hand.

"Sorry" the nobodies said and jumped of, Sora didn't say anything but bounced onto Merlin's bed.

"They've named him Elias Mouse" Aerith said. "The king said it was after his father."

"That's really sweet" Kairi said.

"I'm in" Zexion said, interrupting the girls' "sweet-talk". "Man, why did Master Ansem always have to use such long passwords?"  
"Extra security?" the computer suggested.

"That was a rhetoric question Tron" Zexion said.

"Ah…so… you didn't want me to answer that? Users can be so hard to understand…" Tron said before Zexion turned of the speakers.

"Does it say anything about the heartless?" Riku asked.

"Well duh, it's more difficult to find anything in these files that's NOT about heartless or hearts in general" Zexion said.

"I could help you look if you tell me what you need to find" Tron said helpfully.

"DIDN'T I JUST…oh…Sora, step away from the volume control" Zexion said.

"Who is he arguing with?" Kairi asked silently.

"The security program" Roxas replied.

"Does it say anything about changing heartless back?" Riku asked.

Zexion clicked on a few icons looking through the files. "Afraid not" he said eventually. "Not that I would have expected that…if Ansem knew a way to change heartless back, then Xehanort would have known too, and if he knew…well why would we be still here?"

"Pretty stupid of old Xehanort to go ahead rid himself of his heart without figuring out how to get it back first" Riku sighed throwing the keychain to Way to Dawn up into the air, though as it stopped coming back down he looked up.

"If you hold something dear you better hold on to it, or else someone might snatch it" said a tiny girl who was hovering just above his head, holding the keychain.

"Give me that" Riku said and grabbed it back.

"Yuna, you've got to stop taking things that aren't yours" Aerith warned the pixie-girl.

"I was just joking, relax" Yuna said defensively. "But it's a nice keychain".

"Thanks I guess" Riku said, putting the keychain back into his pocket. "I guess you must be one of those girls Sora told me about, what was it? Irp?"

"Y.R.P" Yuna corrected. "It stands for Yuna, Rikku and Paine; except Paine and Rikku aren't here…they went out to get some ice cream."  
Right on cue, two more fairies suddenly zoomed in trhough the open window, one carrying an ice cream, the other carried two, which she lost on the floor the moment she came in.

"Guys…we have a problem" the blonde girl who lost her ice cream said, panting.

"What's happened Rikku? You look exhausted" Aerith said.

"Well, we were on our way from Scrooge's place to get some ice cream, when we encountered some nobodies" the blonde girl, Rikku said.

"We tried fighting them but they were too many" Paine said.

"Nobodies here? What could this mean?" Kairi asked.

"Trouble I'd say. Let's go!" Riku said.

Everyone fit for battle (which meant just about everyone, except for Merlin who stayed behind to read books and look after Trixi) ran towards the scene where Rikku and Paine had seen the nobodies, but saw nothing.

"Where are they?" Riku asked.

"They were here just a minute ago…LOOK OUT!" Rikku yelled as a sorcerer nobody materialized just behind Riku. The boy quickly turned around and sliced it with the Way to Dawn.

That's when things started happening, several nobodies of almost all types, sorcerers, snipers, dragoons, berserkers, assassins, gamblers, samurai, dancers, dusks and creepers.

"Great. This is just like the last time Radiant Garden was attacked by heartless" Leon said.

"Still, I hope Sephiroth doesn't show up to finish the job for us this time" Cloud said.

So everyone scattered and fought the nobodies. Riku, Roxas and Kairi using keyblades, Sora was…trying to not get killed, Axel fought with his chacrams, Demyx tried to run away, but eventually summoned his water clones to battle, Zexion resorted to confusing the nobodies with various illusions, Leon used his gunblade, Yuffie fought with a large shuriken, Cloud used his badass sword (scratch the bandages, he's using his regular FF-sword. What was the point in the bandages anyway?), Cid was using his Cid-cannon, Aerith helped by healing any injury they got, as the YRP ganged up on a dusk, and started beating it up.

Although the lesser nobodies weren't too hard to defeat with their combined power, the flow didn't seem to be stopping.

"This is useless! Its like when you beat one three more take its place!" Riku said, as he killed another gambler with his keyblade.

At his side, Kairi fought to keep a samurai at bay, Riku ran over and helped her defeat it.

"We need more help" she said.

"K. I'll call Darkwing Duck" Riku said sarcastically, as the "defeated" samurai suddenly rose again and attacked him.

Then suddenly the samurai stopped attacking, an electric current ran trhough it and it died.

The same happened to the other nobodies as well and the rest got destroyed by vines that just suddenly sprung out from the ground, some were trapped in ice and the rest were attacked by a small nine-tailed demon fox.

"Buxy, you came to help!" Kairi said and petted the fox.

"Er…is that a friend of yours?" Leon asked.

"You couldn't make it a day alone did yah?" said another voice.

The gang looked up and saw Marluxia standing on top of a building, Larxene was sitting on his head, and Vexen was also close by.

**Usagi: sudden ending…..and this was a long chapter…considering not much really happened… But we got to know more about what's been going on elsewhere, Xemnas is mad because his old friends have deserted him, Mickey and Minnie's got their baby, Merlin's found a new book to read and Marluxia and Vexen…you couldn't stay away for just one chapter could you?**

**Marluxia: hey! The fans love me!**

**Usagi: what fans?**

**Larxene: yeah right, he just made that up. Besides the only reason he's here is because YOU wrote him in.**

**Usagi: oh yeah….and Vexen surely forgave you very fast for ordering his death and all.**

**Vexen: well it's kind of tricky to hold a grudge against someone with no heart.. but speaking of things that don't make sense, how can Kairi being with the keybladers have any difference to Zexion leaving the Organization or not? **

**Usagi: On the subject on Mickey Junior, anyone who can figure out who he was named after gets to pet the demon fox. Come on, you know you want to.**

**Vexen: you didn't answer my question.. **

**Usagi: Please review everyone!**

**Vexen: still no respect... Just even more loose ends.  
**


	31. Not Again

**Usagi: Happy holiday everyone! Here's a new chapter from me, which I've been finishing at my grandma's house where I don't have access to wireless internet…so despite being able to get online (using their computer) I don't think I'll be able to upload this till I get home and get Rabbit online… but you don't have to worry about that since if you are reading this then it obviously mean I DID get home and uploaded it. **

**Sora: at least being at her Grandmothers house means she can't get on her PS2 and bother me there either…**

**Usagi: I haven't even played Kingdom Hearts since I got Disgaea…and now it may take even longer because! (Holds a PSP above her head, music is playing)**

**Congratulations! You got Sony PSP**

**And you know what that means…. (Gazes into one corner)**

**Terra: I was hoping this day would never come… (portals out)**

**Sora: how was he able to do that?...**

**Usagi: beats me. I only know the guy trhough the previews for Birth By Sleep which will be released on the PSP in a couple of years.**

**Roxas: you don't have a DS do you?**

**Usagi: no…**

**Roxas: phew.**

**Usagi: BUT! (Holds a DS above her head, music playing)**

**Congratulations! Your brother has Nintendo DS**

**Roxas: NOOOOOOOOOO!**

**Usagi: oh what are you crying about? I haven't bothered you yet…much.**

**Roxas: not much compared to Sora and Riku at least…**

**Sora: suddenly I'm glad Kingdom Hearts Coded is a cell phone game…and Usagi hates cell phone games.**

**Usagi: yes I do. Phones are for calling people. They've turned into miniature laptops! **

**Zakura: I take it you won't be using your PSP as an MP3-player then?**

**Usagi: no why should I? I have an iPod Nano, and it's smaller and has more room.**

**Zakura: Especially since you don't have a memory stick for the PSP.**

**Usagi: Shut it… Stupid Sony.  
Anyway, here's chapter 31:**

* * *

**Chapter 31**

**Not Again**

"Looks like we're safe for now" Leon said, after checking there were no more nobodies lurking around. "I guess we should thank you, although I am curious on how you got her so fast."

"We didn't summon those nobodies if that's what you're thinking" Marluxia said. "Xemnas won't let me summon them anyway".

"But it's not that hard to miss a whole group of people running away from this area and hearing you fight" Larxene added. "And if helping you means killing of a few of Xemnas' minions then go for it".

"Its not over yet. He's planning something I just know it" Riku said.

"But what? Is he still trying to create Kingdom Hearts again? Or something different?" Kairi asked.

"He did make Kingdom Hearts and see where that led him" Marluxia said, rolling his eyes. "I don't trust that big rock to get our hearts back more than I trust Vexen's pet fox to retrieve it for me".

"Speaking of Kingdom Hearts, whatever happened to Pete and Maleficent?" Cloud asked.

The others stared at him.

"Damn, I knew we had forgotten something" Roxas said.

* * *

A few hours later the gang set foot on the World that Never Was once more, this time using a different gummi ship (that didn't crash, according to Riku, of course he left out the fact that Roxas was driving) because Cid still hadn't finished fixing the Highwind.

They had ditched Vexen, Marluxia and Larxene in Radiant Garden, since Riku didn't want them on the ship.

"So…where to?" Marluxia asked.

"Didn't we ditch you?" Riku asked.

"Yes. But we can use portals remember? We've been here for hours already, man that ship is slow" Marluxia said.

"Go away".

"Fine, if you don't want my help" Marluxia said and bounced of.

"So, how big of a chance do you suppose it is that Xemnas has already finished of the old witch for us?" Axel asked.

"If he's been here, quite high I guess. But we should probably check to make sure" Riku said.

The gang decided to ignore all attempts of being careful and simply walked in the front door this time. There were still a lot of heartless in the castle, but the occasional dusk still appeared, sometimes quarrelling with the heartless.

"Do heartless and nobodies fight often?" Kairi asked.

"No. It depends on who's controlling them" Zexion said. "I bet Maleficent told the heartless to keep all nobodies at bay, so they stand by that order. If a heartless and nobody met out there with no order of hurting each other they'd probably ignore one another, though if they're both halves of the same person they may actually get attracted to one another, but that rarely happens" he added, with a glance at Roxas, Sora was walking right in his footsteps, almost crashing with his feet occasionally.

"Hm, it's a bit sad don't you think? Both are just trying to become whole again, but Maleficent just uses them, forcing them to fight" Kairi said.

"Please don't start sympathising too much with the heartless, you'll only get hurt" Riku said. "There's no way we can save them all anyway, most are better of dead."

"I know. It's just sad to think about that all these heartless and nobodies were once people" Kairi said. "I wonder what their story is?"

"I don't know. Why don't you go ask them?" Riku said.

"Why didn't we just ring the doorbell when we entered? Cause I'm pretty sure everyone in the castle knows we've arrived by now" Roxas said.

"This place has a doorbell?" Riku asked.

"No…it was just a matter of speech…"

"Right… Well since they probably know already, HEY MALEFICENT! GET OUT HERE" Riku suddenly yelled.

Everyone else just gazed at him.

"What? It's not like we wouldn't confront her anyway…why wait?" Riku said shrugging.

No one bothered replying, they just started to gaze worriedly around in the room, but apart from the heartless and nobodies, no one came.

"Well, this either means she's gone, or she's waiting somewhere for some dramatic boss-fight or something" Roxas said.

"How about we settle for the first and leave now?" Demyx suggested.

"Now that would be boring wouldn't it?" Riku said, and pulled the beaver by the tail into the next room.

He kept dragging Demyx along who was screaming and kicking until they came to the hall of empty melodies, there he dropped him down to the floor.

"Will you shut up before you attract all the heartless in the castle?" he asked.

Demyx silenced as the others started looking around in the room. Zexion kept his nose up into the air sniffing around.

"Someone's coming" he said eventually.

"Maleficent?" Riku asked.

"No. Worse" Zexion replied.

And right he was, just after he had said that, a dark portal materialized on top of the platform (the one where Xigbar stands in KH2 you know) and Xemnas came out of it.

"Oh…him again" Riku said.

"Yes…could you at least TRY to act like you've surprised about it?" Xemnas said.  
"How? This is the World that Never Was, you moron, where did Maleficent go?" Riku said.

"Oh that old witch? We god rid of her" said Xigbar who appeared just behind Xemnas.

"Did you kill her?" Riku asked, though he didn't sound a least bit sad about it.

"Nah, she and her cowardly cat ran for it" Xigbar said. "And she thought _she_ was the main villain. As if!"

"Well I was ready to kick someone's ass and I don't care who it is so why don't you just come down here?" Riku said, and summoned Way to Dawn.

"Well then why don't you take out your anger on all the heartless around here?" Xemnas asked.

"And help you recreate that giant girly moon of yours?"

"It's not girly…"

"It's a pink heart for goodness sake. Don't you tell me that isn't girly".

"Good one Riku" Axel said.  
"Shut up or you're next" Riku said.

"Well then I guess I'll just have to beat you into submission then" Xemnas said and jumped down onto the platform where our heroes were standing, Xigbar disappeared into a portal. "Perhaps you'll be more agreeable as a heartless".

"Whatever gives you that idea?" Roxas asked as he too summoned his keyblades, Sora bounced up onto his head and snarled at his old enemy.

"Don't get too cocky nr XIII, I always planned on finishing you of first" Xemnas said.

Suddenly more than half of the platforms disappeared, and everyone but Sora and Roxas fell down.

"What did you do to them?" Roxas yelled.

"Oh don't worry about them, you should worry more about yourself" Xemnas said, he raised his monstrous body up on two feet and his aerial blades appeared in his front claws, looking at least twice their regular size.

_Well just great. I thought we were done fighting this guy ages ago_ Roxas could hear his heartless "say".

"Sorry Sora, maybe next time. Hang on" Roxas said and jumped out of the way for Xemnas blade.

* * *

When Riku woke up with a thundering headache he quickly noticed he was in a prison cell.

Xemnas (or Xigbar) must have opened a portal just underneath them and sent them there.

He looked around and saw Kairi lying next to him, still unconscious.

Riku got to his feet and started shaking her to wake her up.

"Kai? Hey Kairi, wake up".

Kairi groaned and sat up, almost as soon as he started talking to her.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Looks like we've got thrown into a prison cell or something. Seems Xemnas is too scared to fight us all at once" Riku said.

Now it was Kairi's turn to look around in the cell, and she spotted Demyx, Axel and Zexion who were slowly getting up as well.

"Ow…that must have been some party" Axel said. "Oh wait…It wasn't…"

"Wait…where are Sora and Roxas?" Kairi asked.

"Probably still up there" Riku said and helped her get up. "I heard Xemnas saying something about wanting to finish up them first.

"Oh no. We've got to help them" Kairi said quickly.

"And how do you suggest we do that? We're in a prison cell!" Axel complained.

Riku and Kairi gazed at him.

"Well you could always…" Riku started.

"Oh really? I thought you stated earlier you wouldn't use those things?" Axel said with a smirk.

"I KNOW! But do you see any dune buggies in here? This is an emergency, do you WANT to save your friend or not?" Riku yelled.

"Gee, no reason to get all mad" Axel said and opened up a dark portal.

* * *

Roxas was indeed having problems fighting Xemnas.

With the platform so small, it was even harder to avoid being hit by the superior's attacks, and even with two keyblades it was hard to get in a good hit.

"Damn! This is no use! How can someone that large be so fast?" Roxas said.

Xemnas laughed. "Like you could ever stand a chance of beating me with that" he said pointing to the Oathkeeper on Roxas' right hand.

"What? It's a keyblade, wasn't it you who once praised what a marvellous weapon it was?" Roxas said.

"The keyblade might be marvellous" Xemnas said. "But without the proper keychain it's close to useless."

"What do you mean?" Roxas asked and blocked another one of Xemnas' attacks with the Oblivion.

"You don't have the Oathkeeper's true keychain, so you might as well be using a wooden sword" Xemnas said and attacked once more. Roxas blocked him with Oathkeeper, which suddenly cracked and broke in half.

"And that nr XIII, is why you can't win this battle" Xemnas said.

* * *

**Sora: do I smell a climax?**

**Usagi: yup**

**Sora: final battle approaching?**

**Usagi: yup**

**Sora: me getting my heart back within at least a few chapters?**

**Usagi: yup**

**Sora: You've got a strange video for Christmas and will die in 7 days?**

**Usagi: yu…what? NO! **

**Sora: bummer.**

**Usagi: also, LiD nearing an end also means, it's almost time for a sequel!**

**Sora: NOOOOOOOOO! (Faints)**

**Usagi: since there isn't much left now, I decided to write the summary for LiD2: Darkness of the Heart on my profile page. Just look trhough the profile till you find a text saying:**

**---Fanfiction---**

**Further down the page you'll find first summaries for the Growing Up-series and the Dork-series (including Heart Wars) and just bellow Heart Wars you'll find a text saying**

**--Lost in Darkness (LiD)**

**Just keep looking and you'll find LiD2 very easily:3**

**Roxas: will I get to appear in it?**

**Usagi: …**

**Roxas: fine be that way…**

**Usagi: can't spoil that can I?**

**Zakura: since you haven't decided yet?**

**Usagi: precisely. **

**Since no one seemed to figure out (or care about guessing) who Mickey's son Elias was named after, I've decided to leave it open for now. Also I only got one review for the last chapter…and I suspect there's something wrong with the review-system since one reader claimed to have reviewed but said review never came… and it's not the first time that has happened… **

**Please review people! And someone please fix the problem I have with getting reviews so that said reviews can come trhough! **


	32. Nr Thirteen's Final Battle

**Usagi: Yes! I am finally back! And with another exiting instalment of LiD. **

**Sora: is it over soon?**

**Usagi: yes it is. So stop whining.**

**Sora: (with no emotion whatsoever) yay.**

**Usagi: what? I thought you wanted that?**

**Sora: yeah but I get this creepy feeling the sequel is going to be even worse.**

**Usagi: whatever gives you that idea?**

**Sora: that you are a sadistic evil little demon-rabbit-racoon-fangirl-hybrid.**

**Usagi: thank you!**

**Sora: that wasn't a compliment…**

**Roxas: I don't like the title of this chapter…**

**Usagi: oh don't you start hating me too.**

**Roxas: I can't. No heart remember?**

**Usagi: good boy. With no further ado, here's chapter 32. Second-last chapter. Yup. There I said it:3**

* * *

**Chapter 32**

**Nr Thirteen's Final Battle**

* * *

While Sora and Roxas were in deep trouble, the rest of the heroes were still running around in the basement of the castle.

"Why couldn't I just dark portal directly up to the platform?" Axel asked.

"It's not very wise to be using the dark portal too much" Riku said. "We only needed to get out of the cage".

"That's stupid. I've been using those things for years and I'm fine" Axel said and shrugged.

"You don't have a heart to loose Axel" Riku reminded him.

"Oh yeah."

"But shouldn't we at least hurry up and save Sora and Roxas?" Kairi asked.

"Aw, he can handle it, after all Sora's fought Xemnas I've-lost-count-of-how-many times before" Riku said.

"Sure? Cause I don't think Sora agrees with you" Axel said.

Riku was just about to ask what he meant with that, when a certain shadow suddenly crashed into him.

"What the…"

"Sora! What's happened?" Kairi yelled, interrupting Riku which was probably just as well.

Sora started bouncing up and down on Riku's stomach and cursing his inability to speak out loud, while all the noise he could really make was low squeaking.

"Will you get of, that hurt" Riku said pushing the shadow of. "What do you want?"  
"He can't talk Riku, but it looks like he's trying to tell us something. Something important" Kairi said.

"Yes, we know Roxas is in trouble and we were just on our way, where do you think we were going? Disney Land?" Riku said.

Sora was looking increasingly frustrated, and decided to bite Riku's hand.

"OUCH! That hurt even more…so shadows DO have teeth…"

"I think he's trying to draw something" Kairi said, as Sora had pulled out a piece of charcoal (which seemed to be lying around at random places in the castle… wonder where they came from) and drew something that resembled a star on the floor.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Riku asked.

"That heartless have an obsession for more than just heart-shaped objects?" Axel suggested.

"What? You want a Papua fruit?" Riku asked.

"It doesn't look like a Papua fruit…it almost looks like…hey" Kairi said, and reached her hand into her pocket.

She pulled out a small star-shaped trinket made from shells.

"Isn't that your lucky charm?" Riku asked.

"Yeah, and it's also the key chain for the keyblade Roxas uses, the Oathkeeper" Kairi said as Sora snatched the lucky charm and ran of. "See? Told you that's what he wanted."  
"How did you know?" Riku asked.

"I had a feeling" Kairi said, smiling.

"Oooooh. I think someone's in luuuve" Axel teased. "If you ever need dating tips…"

"I'm sure I'll be fine Axel, but we've got to check on Roxas, he could be in trouble" Kairi said.

--

"This is useless XIII, you might as well give up, and I could even help you get your heart back without help from that stupid shadow" Xemnas said.

Roxas simply snorted as he struggled to block the dragon-thing's attacks with the Oblivion and the last half of Oathkeeper.

"If you've got such a brilliant plan to get back all our hearts why are you still a nobody?" he asked.

"I'll tell you why" Xemnas said and threw one of his blades at Roxas. "It's all thanks to your so-called friends, ruining my plans. Speaking of which, where did your little pet go?"

Roxas didn't answer, just concentrated on blocking Xemnas' attacks, if Sora had been around he'd probably feel annoyed, but then again the reason he WOULD be annoyed was exactly because the heartless left without a word. Fine so he never really did say much but still… Where did that little shadow go?

"Oh that's rich" Xigbar had returned, and was sitting atop of the platform, watching the fight. "Even his own heartless knows he's doomed, so he ran of to save his own skin."

"Shut up!" Roxas yelled, and fired a blizzard-beam towards the wolf from the Oblivion, only to get hit from behind by Xemnas.

"Pay attention to this battle nr XIII, unless of course you want to fight the entire organization XIII all on your own" the superior said.

_You mean what's left of it, moron_ said another voice, though Roxas quickly noticed he was the only one who heard it as a shadow heartless darted out of the darkness and straight at him, Roxas caught it as it bounced at him.

"Where the heck have you been?" he asked.

_Ehm…I was trying to save your sorry behind?_ Sora suggested.

Just then Roxas noticed what he was holding, Kairi's lucky charm!

"Wow…maybe you're not so dumb after all" Roxas said and took the keychain.

_Don't be too optimistic I still got lost on the way back here…in a portal!_ Sora complained.

"I'm getting to that" Roxas said and attached the keychain to the broken keyblade, which instantly healed up. "Now Xemnas, it's time to beat you up…again".

"You little…" Xemnas started and charged at Roxas again.

Roxas blocked the attack, and this time the Oathkeeper was able to hold him of.

"Getting a new keyblade isn't going to help you now XIII" Xemnas said and tried to hit Roxas with his tail, which he did.

Roxas slipped so he lost the keyblades and Sora fell of his head. Roxas himself slid so he nearly fell of the platform, but managed to grip on in the last minute.

"Now that was just too easy" Xemnas said. "Sora was a much bigger challenge, at least when he was helped out by his friend. Guess you really are nothing on your own then?"

Roxas ignored him and concentrated on trying to get up, why did villains always have to make a long boring monologue when they thought they were winning? The more humane option would be to just kill the hero immediately instead of boring them like this.

"Any last words before I turn you into nothing instead of a nobody?" Xemnas asked.

But before he could deal the finishing move, Xemnas was hit in the face with something small and black.

"Ack! Get of my face darn shadow" Xemnas said and stumbled backwards.

Roxas took this opportunity to pull himself up from the ledge and summoned his keyblades, then, as Xemnas stood up on two legs trying to shake Sora of, Roxas hit his feet with the Oblivion knocking him over.

Xemnas stumbled and fell backwards, of the platform on the other side, by this time Sora was quick to jump of his face and landed in Roxas' arms.

"Wow… I guess we won" Roxas said, sounding exhausted.

"Don't tell me you finished the party without us?" a new voice said.

Roxas turned around and saw Riku, Kairi, Demyx, Axel and Zexion standing in the door.

"What took you so long?" he asked.

"We would have been here sooner if Riku hadn't been so darn stubborn" Axel said and darted out at the platform before Riku had time to stab his head with the Road to Dawn.

_Riku being stubborn? What else is new? _Sora asked, although Roxas was the only one who could hear him.

Kairi came over and peeked over the edge.

"Think he's dead?" she asked.

"If I know Xemnas right he'll probably return for 4 new fights with increasing difficulty level" Riku said.

Everyone else just stared at him.

"I'm kidding. If we have to fight that guy one more time I'll just call out my Death Star to finish him of for good" Riku said.

"Your what?" Roxas asked.

"Uh…never mind" Riku said. "Would be cool to have one though…"

"You watch way too much Star Trek Riku" Kairi added and giggled.

"It's not Star _Trek,_ its Star _Wars_. Geez Kai" Riku said, like this was something everyone should know, which the author apparently agreed with him in.

"That should teach the old ugly-face. No one could survive that drop! Unless you're Xigbar but he controls gravity so it doesn't count" Axel said. "Too bad, because I wanted to test out my new secret weapon".

"What secret weapon?" Zexion asked.

"If I told you it wouldn't be a secret anymore. Got it memorized?" Axel said.

"Why do I get this feeling we've forgotten something?" Roxas asked.

Suddenly Xemnas re-emerged over the edge, spreading his giant dragon wings.

"WHO'S STUPID IDEA WAS IT TO PUT WINGS ON HALF OF OUR ENEMIES?" Riku yelled to no one in particular...that might have been directed at the author. Ups, my bad.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily!" Xemnas roared.

"Well then let's try harder" Roxas said and summoned up Oathkeeper and Oblivion again, the others summoned their weapons as well, Sora bounced up at Roxas' head again.

"You do that" Xemnas said and landed on the platform, hitting Roxas with his tail as he landed, the combination of air pressure from his wings and the tail knocked both heartless and nobody over the edge.

"Sora!" Kairi yelled and was about to run over but Riku stopped.

"Wait, there' nothing you can do, you'll just fall down too" he warned her.

"I'll get you for that!" Axel said and pulled out a bottle, which he then threw at Xemnas, some purple liquid oozed out of the bottle.

"THAT was your secret weapon? It make Zexion's book look like an A-bomb" Riku said, said cat glared at him.

"Hah. Seems like you're loosing the touch nr VIII" Xemnas said and was about to charge at the heroes but then he suddenly stopped.

He looked down at his feet and noticed they had become smaller, then suddenly he was surrounded by a purple cloud, and as soon as the mist cleared the giant monster was gone; in its place was an ottsel….a tiny ottsel.

Everyone stared at the ottsel with a shocked look, and then they all stared at Axel, who was also staring at the little one, before he broke out in laughter.

"Dark eco does it again" he said. "Though I had no idea it would work THAT well!"

"What the hell did you do to me you freak? XIGBAR! WHERE'D YOU GO?" Xemnas yelled.

Saïx suddenly ran into the platform.

"He went to search for Marluxia Superior, some of the dusks saw him lurking around, and shut your mouth VIII" Saïx said.

"Make me" Axel said, still snickering. "What are you going to do? Chew my non-existing boots to bits?"

Saïx growled at him. "We'll get you for this, all of you" he said before picking up the baby ottsel and ran into a portal.

"We don't have time for this, we have to see if Sora and Roxas are okay" Kairi said.

"Right, can either of you create a portal leading down to the floor bellow?" Riku asked.

"Sure you want that? It's a long way" Axel said teasingly.

Riku sighed. "Yes I am sure, this is an emergency" he said. "Besides, I've been using those things for months, and I'm not a heartless yet right?"

"That's the spirit kiddo" Axel said and opened a portal.

* * *

**Usagi: oh noes! What's going to happen to my Roxy-kun!**

**Roxas: What the?...**

**Sora: are you TRYING to kill us lady?**

**Usagi: No. But believe me, it hurts in my heart having to do that.**

**Roxas: you HAD to do that?**

**Riku: you HAVE a heart?**

**Usagi:O Why does everyone act so surprised about that? Would I be able to enjoy your suffering if I didn't?**

**Everyone: (Stare)**

**Usagi: ….I shouldn't have said that.**

**Zakura: Some way to defeat a villain.**

**Usagi: so I like to humiliate people:3 sue me. I made Saïx a puppy too remember? The reason I turned Xemnas into a (baby) ottsel instead of killing him outright (which I wanted to do after he kept coming back when I THOUGHT I had defeated the bastard while playing KH2…same goes for his heartless) but I needed him for the next story.**

**Every KH-story needs a villain…and I don't like Maleficent. In KH2 I saw her more of a comic-relief villain rather than a real villain… and in KH she just THOUGHT she was in charge. At least I only had to kill her once, as opposed to someone else (glares at Xemnas and Xehanort) **

**Xehanort: You're just mad because you suck at RPGs**

**Usagi: I am mad because every time I was done fighting either one of you I thought "Yes! I beat the game", but then the bustard KEEP COMING BACK! WHY DON'T THEY JUST DIE ALREADY?? Seriously, multi-stage villains suck.**

**Sora: so why'd you bring him back for LiD?**

**Usagi: ….shut it shadow-boy. Or I WILL kill you.**

**Sora: You can't kill the main character of in the first fic of the series…**

**Usagi: not? I've read other fanfics where you die.**

**Sora: but…that's… I hate you.**

**Usagi: and as some of you might have noticed…I like referring to other fics in my fanfics:3 In this chapter I couldn't help but ad a reference to one of my other more insane fanfics, see if you can spot it? ;) **

**That was sadly all I had for you today, the final chapter is more or less planned out…but don't expect it to be up tomorrow…or this week… since even though I have planned most of the stuff I still haven't written it down :p But hopefully it'll be up soon:3 **

**Sora: and hopefully I won't die but get my heart back.**

**Usagi: Please review everyone :D **


	33. Lost in the Darkness

**Usagi: Did I tell you not to expect the last chapter this week? …**

**I lied… or pretty much, finished it of sooner than expected XD**

**Sora: hurray, maybe we can finally get out of this nightmare.**

**Usagi: Sadly…chapter 33 turned out shorter than I expected, and I realized I probably should have waited to release chapter 32 so I could just do them both as one chapter…but that would deprive you of a cliffhanger, and that would be mean don't you think? **

**Riku: actually, I think the readers might be more happy WITHOUT the cliffhangers.**

**Usagi: but that's no fun for me… So I solved the problem of short chapter by adding a epilogue…which oddly is even longer than the chapter itself… filled with random foreshadowing for the next fic!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 33**

**Lost in the Darkness**

Roxas opened his eyes to pitch-black darkness, so dark he started to wonder if he had opened his eyes at all.

"What is this place?" he asked out loud. No one answered, probably because there was no one there.

What had happened? The last thing he remembered was falling from the platform in the Hall of Empty Melodies.

He remembered hearing once that all nobodies were destined to fade back into darkness, was this it? And in that case, would he have to wander around in this dark area forever?

Then suddenly he noticed something at the corner of his eye, he turned around, and saw a tiny spec of light, which appeared to be some distance away from him.

He got up and walked towards it.

As he walked closed to the light he started hearing things, like a thumping sound, becoming more and more frequent the closer he got.

He was now close enough to touch the glowing object, so he did.

--

Kairi ran out of the swirling darkness, and found herself in the Castle's basement; Riku and the nobodies appeared soon after.

"Wow, that platform is pretty high up" Riku said, as he looked up at the roof, or what he could see if it.

"Yeah, another one of Xemnas' insane security instalments" Axel said. "Not many people can survive a fall from that height."

"Come on! We got to find Sora!" Kairi said and ran past the boys.

"She's got a point, Zexion, could you sniff him out?" Riku said.

"I could try but don't get your hopes up" Zexion said.

--

_Now that was the stupidest idea ever, who's great idea was it…okay fine so maybe Xemnas knocked me over on purpose. Man that guy is one big pain in the ass. _

"Sora?"

_I have the most mayor headache ever. No wonder since I fell…how far? Too far I'm certain._

"Where are you?"  
_And now I'm hearing stuff too, I must be loosing it. _

"Please answer me."

_Wait… I know that voice right? It's… my memories still seem a bit cloudy… Namine? No, that's not it._

"Sora please!"

_Okay fine, get of your ass you lazy bum, I can lie around here forever._

Sora wasn't quite sure what to expect when he woke up.

For the first bit he wasn't really expecting to wake up, having survived a drop of…he still didn't know, but now that he was able too look up he realised it was pretty darn far.

Secondly he wasn't expecting to feel so…bright; it almost felt like he had been sleeping for the past year again.

Thirdly, when he looked back down he didn't expect to be staring right into the face of a rather grumpy-looking cat.

"Well I'll be damned…you did it again" Zexion said.

"Hey! Don't stare me right in the face like that" Sora said and bounced backwards.

"Sora?"

Sora looked up and saw a certain girl standing behind a pillar, staring at him.

"Kairi?"

Kairi looked like she wanted to say something, but tears started running down her face and before anyone could react, she ran towards Sora and hugged him.

Riku, Axel and Demyx soon appeared right after Kairi.

"Whoa... Sora what…how did this happen?" Riku asked.

"I don't know. Last thing I know I was falling then the next…Kairi, you're choking me!" Sora said.

"Oh, sorry" Kairi said, still with tears in her eyes.

"It's okay, just remember if you ever see a strange brown creature that looks like a rabbit mixed with a fat racoon just kill it on the spot"

"Say what?"

"Never mind".

"Man Roxas, that was awesome, how did you even manage to get your heart back so soon?" Axel asked.  
"Like I said, I haven't got a clue, but maybe you want to fall down 10 stories and see if it works out" Sora said.

"So, just out of curiosity, just how much do you remember from these past weeks?" Riku asked.

"Enough to know that I will never eat another sea salt ice cream again" Sora said. "So yeah, I think I remember everything now, from both sides…and that gets confusing, not to mention it feels like waking up from the longest and worst nightmare of my life!"

"Don't worry Sora, it's all over now, so when we go home everything will be back to normal" Kairi said, still refusing to let go but at least she wasn't strangling him anymore.

"Hey yeah…I just remembered something we forgot…we didn't tell our parents we were leaving" Riku said.

Everyone else just stared at him.

"Oh we are so grounded" Sora groaned.

Despite all the trouble they had been trhough, the gang couldn't help but laughing at this, after all the dangers they had faced getting grounded would have been the least of their worries.

--

"Can somebody please explain to me what just happened?"

"Relax; I'm just as confused as you are."

"Xemnas has been trying to figure out for AGES how to get a nobody's heart back, and now that kid just comes in and does…what happened?"

"You asked that five times already".

"Where's that bloody fox when you need him?"

Marluxia and Larxene had been hiding on a nearby ledge, watching what had happened, although Marluxia was having problems believing his own eyes at the moment.

"Then again…he might be of use to us" the pink rabbit said.

"Who? Vexen?" Larxene asked.

"Pft no… or well I guess he's useful somehow too… I'm talking about Sora, with him on our side the organization would beg us to take over" Marluxia said.

"And why would that brat help us? I don't think he would want anything to do with us after what happened last time…even if he doesn't remember but Riku is sure to have told him by now" Larxene said.

"Damn…you've got a point there… I guess we should find a way to convince him, something all would profit on" Marluxia said.

"That'll take ages. Come on lets go before Xigbar finds us again, no offence but…in that form you're pretty useless" Larxene said winking, before opening a portal and disappearing into it.

"At least I'm bigger than you" Marluxia said and jumped in after her.

* * *

**The end**

* * *

**Epilogue: (AKA: Random foreshadowing to stall for time so you won't notice this chapter was in fact very short)**

The trio's parents were noticeably not very happy about their kids disappearing without telling where they went, and it took some explaining before they actually believed where they had went (luckily, something about the talking animals seemed to convince them the story wasn't that far-fetched).

So after all that they decided not to ground them, except Riku's parents, since he had a tendency to run of without telling anyone several times.

As for the nobodies, with nowhere else to go the kid's parents decided to let them live with them as "pets" (to Zexion's big annoyance, but at least no one was calling him "Fluffy" anymore) Sora's mom was also happy to adopt the stray cat Trixi from Spargus City.

Zexion decided to move in with Kairi, he claimed it was because he didn't want to share homes with a female cat…or Axel…or any of the others really.

It had been two weeks now since the incident, and life seemed to be returning to normal on Destiny Islands….or as normal as it could get.

Zexion was hiding under Kairi's bed one morning trying to avoid her mother, who had made it her goal to pet him at least once, then he spotted something, a book was lying under the bed.

Zexion was fully aware of the phrase "Curiosity killed the cat", but quite obviously saw himself as one step ahead of most (see: all) other cats, so he pulled it out.

Turned out it was a photo album, he flipped it open to find various pictures of Kairi with her parents, only most seemed to be with Sora and/or Riku, and occasionally their other friends, Tidus, Selphie and Wakka.

The last page however had only one picture, it showed two adults with two children, but it was impossible to make out their faces.

"Hi Zexion".

Zexion quickly turned around, he hadn't noticed Kairi had come in, this island life must have weakened his senses, or he had just gotten lazy.

"I wasn't sneaking" he said quickly.

Kairi just laughed.

"It's okay, if I didn't want anyone to see those pictures I might as well just burn them" she said.

"So…what happened to this picture?" Zexion asked, pointing to the misty image.

"I've had it for as long as I remember, but it got wet when I came to the island, so it's completely ruined now" Kairi said.

"Got wet?" Zexion asked curiously.

"I'm not really from Destiny Islands. I don't remember where I came from, the first thing I do remember was waking up on the beach" Kairi said. "I guess it's of my real family… they who look after me here are really my step-parents, I don't remember my real ones."

"Pity" Zexion said.

"It's okay. I have friends and family here now, can't really miss something you can't remember right?" she said cheerfully.

"Don't you ever wonder what they are doing now?" Zexion asked.

"Sometimes" Kairi said. "But then again, there's little to do about it, Sora figured by the Ansem Reports that I probably came from Radiant Garden, but it mentions nothing about my family, and it's a big city, besides, who knows if even all the residents made it back after Maleficent left the place? It'll probably take a miracle to find them."

"Good point" Zexion said and turned his attention towards the picture again.

Only thing that was really visible on it and that was the colours of the people's hair.

The smallest child had red hair, undoubtedly Kairi, as the only other red-hair was one of the parents; the other two in the picture appeared to have silvery-blue hair.

Zexion heard the door shut behind him as Kairi left for school, he closed the album.

"Well… Miracles do happen occasionally" he said to himself as he pushed the album back under the bed.

--

Netherworld

Laharl had been very busy since the keybladers left his world.

Ever since he found out there were possibly a giant heartless fox demon running loose in his kingdom he knew he had to have it as a vassal, so he had basically asked all of his remaining vassals (who appeared to be decreasing every day, with the sudden increase of heartless) and basically anyone who didn't want to get beaten up to keep a look out for it.

He had even gone to such length as putting up Wanted posters all over the Netherworld and offering a reward for whoever caught it.

But as if yet he wasn't having any luck. You'd think a giant monster fox would be easy to find? Though the fact that the Netherworld was basically inhabited by monsters of all sizes and forms made the job a bit harder.

"What do you mean you haven't found anything yet?" He yelled at the prinny squad standing in front of him, looking rather beaten-up.

"Prince, you've been asking the same question twice a day for the past few days, let it go already!" Etna said. "Perhaps someone already vanquished the fox?"

"I'm starting to doubt whether it's even a good idea to socialize with these heartless" Flonne said. "After what Riku said."

Laharl merely laughed at her statement.

"So you think I should give up my ambition of possibly getting the strongest heartless in the Netherworld as my vassal just because some kid said it might be dangerous? The heartless have been here for years already, and you don't see me turning into one" he said.

"But we've looked all over the Bijuu's territories, there's no sign of it dood" one of the prinnies said.

"Well then maybe it left its territory, KEEP LOOKING!" Laharl yelled.

The prinnies turned on their heels….wooden sticks…and ran for the door, it wasn't pretty when Laharl got mad, even worse when Etna got mad, and she had a habit of taking it out on the prinnies whenever they weren't following her orders, and since Etna was Laharl's vassal…well…

However as soon as they got to the door someone…or something tore it down, and the remaining prinnies (that weren't crushed under the door) turned once more and ran in the other direction.

Laharl gasped, Flonne screamed, Etna beat up the prinny that was trying to hide behind her. At the door stood a massive creature, resembling a massive dark red (almost black) fox with shiny yellow eyes and nine enormous tails, which looked big enough to cause hurricanes.

"Like it?" a voice said.

Laharl looked down and saw a man wearing a dark cloak and sunglasses standing next to the fox.

He looked human, but something told Laharl he wasn't an ordinary human being, but he didn't look like a demon either.

The young overlord grinned. "Well I must say I'm impressed" he said. "I knew Kyuubi's heartless would be powerful but I didn't expect it to be THAT massive."

"You'll be surprised on what may come out of the darkness of someone's hearts" the stranger said. "But, I am afraid I have no interest in that reward of yours."

"Is that so? Then why did you come here? Want to get beaten up?" Laharl said and as on cue, a few of his heartless vassals teleported into the room and growled towards the stranger.

"Actually… I was thinking about something else" the man said and took the sunglasses of, revealing a pair of wicked yellow eyes.

* * *

**Usagi: and there! It's finished!**

**Sora: did you just finish the final chapter with…3 cliffhangers?**

**Usagi: …pretty much.**

**Sora: I still hate your guts.**

**Usagi: Why? I made you human again didn't I?**

**Sora: yeah, but 1: You didn't bother explaining HOW. 2. You made Kairi almost strangle me. 3. as mentioned, you ended the fanfic with 3 cliffhangers at the same time. I didn't even know what was possible.**

**Usagi: yeah well get used to it!**

**Riku: Why do I get the feeling LiD is just the prequel for something far more terrifying?**

**Usagi: Because you are paranoid. This might be a bit cruel way to finish of the fanfic, by creating even more loose threads but believe me, I AM planning to rap those up within the next two fanfics.**

**Laharl: If you plan on not returning to the Netherworld before LiD3 I will personally skin you alive.**

**Usagi: No. Netherworld is one of the first worlds to be featured in LiD2, because I like it and I had to reveal the "mysterious stranger".**

**Zakura: which is?**

**Usagi: he is…THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER!**

**Zakura: ooooh**

**Usagi: please do review loyal readers! And don't skin me alive, it's scary enough thinking Laharl's gonna do it… And keep an eye up for LiD2: The Darkness of the Heart.**

**Sora: I don't like that title one bit.**

**Mysterious Stranger: I do.**

**Sora: Do I know you?**

**Mysterious Stranger: no you don't. It kind of comes with the name "mysterious stranger"….okay so that's not my name but until Usagi decides to reveal it that'll be all I'm called in this fanfic. **

**Sora: nifty…**


End file.
